N’Assembly must bar FCT ministers from revoking approved lands — Festrut Homes CEO

Festus Uwakhemen, Chief Executive Officer of Festrut Group of Companies, has urged the National Assembly to enact a law stripping ministers of the power to unilaterally revoke lands approved by their predecessors in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), warning that arbitrary revocations are destabilising the real estate sector in Abuja.

Uwakhemen made the call on Wednesday during the 16th anniversary celebration of Festrut Homes and the groundbreaking of Festrut Kingdom Estate in Orozo, Abuja.

“The National Assembly has to pass a law that when a minister had approved any land, in principle or either through C of O, no other minister has the power to revoke,” he said.

He added that revocation of land titles should only be possible through legislative oversight.

“The National Assembly has to pass a law that when a minister has approved any land, in principle or through C of O, no other minister has the power to revoke the land, except the process passes through the National Assembly. With that, we are going to have sanity. But if that is not passed, every minister has the power to revoke,” he stated.

According to him, frequent revocations by successive FCT ministers have created uncertainty for investors and property owners.

“There is a whole lot the minister of the FCT has to do. The reason why we have a problem in the FCT is that every minister who comes likes to revoke the land that the previous minister had given.

“So, when another minister comes, in trying to pay that minister back, he also revokes the land that the previous minister had given,” he said.

“That is why people in the FCT keep having issues of revocation. You’ll see a big estate, they’ll just come and say the land has been removed because the minister seeks to have the gavel.”

Uwakhemen stressed that while ministers should retain the authority to allocate land, the power to revoke should not rest solely with them.

“The minister should have power to give allocation but should not be given the power to revoke.

“So, if revocation passes through processes, the minister will think very well before he gives approval to any allocation, knowing fully well that if that allocation has to be revoked, it has to pass through channels that he may not like,” he said.

He insisted that legislative intervention would ensure transparency through public hearings.

“If the National Assembly passes it into law that the minister of FCT should not be empowered to revoke properties anymore and that revocation should pass through the National Assembly, they’ll look into it through public hearing. This will save us a whole lot,” he added.

On fraud prevention in the real estate sector, Uwakhemen said the challenge was not the absence of policies but weak enforcement.

“The problem we have in Nigeria is not the financial institution but the policy that have been put together to checkmate fraud; it is adherence and enforcement of these policies,” he said.

He disclosed that developers had undergone training with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCMUL), offshoots of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on tackling financial crimes in the property sector.

“We have visited the NFIU and the SCMUL, that trained developers on how to manage financial fraudulent activities within the real estate industry,” he said.

According to him, developers are required to profile prospective buyers and report suspicious transactions through a designated portal.

“Anyone who is to buy a property from any developer should be profiled; it is the responsibility of the developer to profile whoever wants to buy properties,” he explained.

“There is a portal that has been created to report a certain amount of payment to the NFIU. That report does not necessarily mean that the person will be arrested or flagged.

“The caution here is that should there be an investigation in the future that routes the money to your account, the report you have made has exonerated you from being answerable to crime.”

He, however, lamented poor public sensitisation on compliance obligations and called on the National Orientation Agency to step up awareness campaigns.

“All these are not getting the sensitisation they deserve. It is now the responsibility of the government to sensitise people through either the National Orientation Agency or whatever agency they so wish, to allow the public to know that they are being monitored,” he said.

Uwakhemen also advocated mandatory registration of developers under the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) to enhance accountability.

“The NFIU and the Ministry of Housing should enforce that all developers must be registered with REDAN, so that there will be a body that will be held responsible if there is fraudulent activity within that area.

“When their body organises that they are being questioned, they will ensure that their members do the right thing,” he stated.

Reflecting on his company’s journey, Uwakhemen said Festrut Homes had faced severe business challenges but chose to remain in Nigeria rather than relocate abroad.

“There is a saying that ‘Nigeria happened to you.’ Nigeria happened to us in 2014; we passed through a whole lot of challenges as a company,” he said.

“I had every reason to change location, but I chose to stay back, to fight through the bottlenecks and ensure that I see the light of the day. And I have no regret about staying back.”

He noted that the Orozo project, initiated in 2010, had witnessed significant value appreciation.

“When we were selling this place in 2010–2011, we were selling for N8.750 million. But as we speak today, some of those who invested then are selling the land space for N250 million,” he said.

“That is what we do in Festrut. We build family, we build our people, we build finances.”

Uwakhemen maintained that while fraud may not be completely eradicated, stronger enforcement, mandatory professional regulation, and legislative reform on land revocation would significantly stabilise Nigeria’s real estate sector, particularly in the FCT.