Penultimate week, Anyim slammed a N2 billion libel suit against Ojougboh and the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank at an Abuja High Court for alleged damaging publications on his person (Anyim).
Anyim, in two separate writs of summon issued by way of his counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN contends that the separate publications credited to Ojougboh and Frank in newspapers on July 13 and 15 regarding his individual and integrity have been false, unfounded and libelous.
How it started
While planning to celebrate Nigeria’s 100 years of being as a country, a question was asked: what could government put down as a centenary monument? The idea to build a Centenary City was hatched by the SGF in 2013.
The then President Goodluck Jonathan led an official delegation to launch the Abuja Centenary City project on February 4, 2013. In his speech the president tagged Centenary City a “city of hope and elegance” as well as a symbol of the Nigerian unity. Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) who is board chairman of Centenary City Plc, (a firm incorporated under Anyim’s watch) to midwife the city project noted that the project can be successful only if peace reigns in all parts of the country.
Centenary City around Gosa, along the Airport Road sits on 1,200 hectares of land and is said to be the second largest private city development in history -- second to Songdo International Business District in South Korea.
But when works on the city began, questions started coming. The first was over the status of the city as posed by the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at the time the concept was announced. For challenging those who wanted the city, Bala Mohammed was said to have nearly lost his job. It was said that when the former FCT minister was asked to sign documents for the land, he initially declined saying a project of this kind has no place in Abuja master plan. But he eventually signed the papers and issued the Certificate of Occupancy (CofO).
Then compensation of land owners. Chief Monday Kogi, the traditional ruler of Baruwa, one of the communities affected by the project complained that the amount of money paid them individually was too meager for them to leave their farmlands, their source of livelihood over centuries. But the traditional later rested the case and the five communities of original inhabitants: Baruwa, Gosa Kpai Kpai, Daiynna, Toge and Ruga have since struck deals with Centenary City management and matters put to rest. Compensation was mainly for economic trees and houses.
On February 2, 2015 Comrade Frank wrote an open letter to former President Jonathan under the title: Centenary City Scam: Urgent need to Investigate and Sack the SGF for Gross Corruption Arising from the Centenary City. Frank demanded immediate revocation of the CofO of the Centenary City and withdrawal of the free zone status granted Centenary City. As a free zone, the city is exempted from both federal and state taxes. There was no apparent reply to this from Jonathan.
Last month, another issue emanated from Ojougboh. Ojougboh is former chairman of the board of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA). NEPZA is government’s investment promotion agency for investment into the free zone areas in Nigeria. The licensing, monitoring and regulation of free zones scheme in Nigeria is vested in NEPZA by the Nigeria Export Processing Zones’ Act 63, of 1992.
Ojougboh raised objection saying due process was not followed in making Centenary City a free zone. Ojougboh said he had personally written former President Jonathan on several occasions telling him it was wrong to create a free zone in Abuja.
The PDP chief complained that a huge chunk of land is “given to only one man” who has incorporated the entity as a free zone, terming it “crime personified”.
FCDA, Abdulsalami, NEPZA mum
Though officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) were unwilling to speak on the matter, an official confided in us that the land use plan for the project has not been approved.
Unlike the land swap scheme where the land use plan and engineering designs have been approved, Centenary City has neither land use plan nor engineering design approved by FCDA. The official said the land use plan for Centenary City cannot be distinct from the Abuja master plan. “FCDA will not agree with that. Let it be one city, not multi cities. Abuja master plan was made since 1980,” the official maintained.
Director, Abuja Infrastructure Investment Centre (AIIC) Faruk sani declined to speak saying Centenary City is not under his supervision. AIIC oversees the land swap programme for FCTA.
Efforts to get Gen Abubakar to explain why there is this uproar over Centenary City failed. Our reporter who traced him to his residence in Minna could not make him speak on the matter. The General simply said the MD of Centenary City will speak on the matter when time comes.
Similarly, attempts to get the Managing Director of NEPZA to explain the process that resulted in granting Centenary City free zone status failed. A staff who said he had no official permission to speak drew this reporter’s attention to the case in court. “We don’t know what you mean by due process wasn’t followed,” he concluded.
Reacting to all this, the Managing Director of Centenary City Plc, Dr Ike Odenigwe maintained that the investment is wholly private-sector driven. He brandished the CofO for the land denying that it has been given to a bank to source a loan.
Similarly, former SGF Anyim told our reporter on phone that all funds used in the project so far are from private investors, reiterating that the guidelines for the city have been gazetted.
Anyim denied sale of parcels of land in the place saying, “Nobody can sell plots. People have come to ask and we told them, even me as I am, I can’t access that land because the master plan is done by Eagle Hills design. If you have to do anything in that place, you have to apply to Eagles Hills, Eagle Hills will first see whether it’s captured in their master plan before you can even talk about it. Nobody can sell land in Centenary City.
“I can’t even say this is what’s happening in that place because we have MoU with Eagle Hills and Eagle Hills is in charge of the entire development. Such projects are very very rare in the world.”
On the size of the land involved, Anyim asked, “How many hectares of land are in land swap? Do you know Centenary City isn’t the first in the country? What about Eko Atlantic City?”
Anyim explained the process so far taken to get the land use approval: “When the allocation was made and FCDA said that’s the most suitable place for the project, Eagle Hills came in and did the first draft of the master plan. There’s what we call Clarification Studies. About four or five clarification studies have been done on that land. Clarification studies from FCDA team -- that’s engineering, all the departments and the people doing the master plan. We now met, step by step: this is what to put here, this is where water will come, this is where electricity will come.
“When that place was first assigned, there was a [electricity] transmission line. NEPZA and FCDA met, agreed on how to…and it was relocated. Every step in Centenary City [project] has gone through such a thorough process because if not, the developers would not put their kobo. At every stage they would ask that the proper process be followed.”
As for money for the project, the former SGF maintained that no government dime is put in it: “Investors, people invested. There was investors’ forum and people that invested are people with names. When investment forum was held, we made a capital call of $5 million maximum and $250,000 minimum. The idea is that no person should dominate the city. So the maximum you can invest as a company or as a single individual is $5 million. And people with names invested.
“An international audit firm…established everything. In fact, the first day we met was in Hilton. He will even get a video of it if you get the MD [of Centenary City]. The first day we made capital call, people from 11 countries were there. And people subscribed. We got from investors about $80 million. It’s not a small project. It’s from there we have paid up everything.”
The investor
Eagle Hills, a UAE-based private real estate investment and development company has presented The Address Hotel + Resorts as the core element of Centenary City as its premier lifestyle free zone development in Abuja. The Address Abuja promises to introduce a new concept in Nigeria for hospitality and residential living with serviced villas and apartments. The investment is driven by a board member of Eagle Hills, Mohammed Al Abbar. Al Abbar was quoted as saying, Centenary City is a spectacular city hub, the largest of its kind in Africa. “The Address residence Abuja will be the latest premier property embodying Eagle Hills progressive spirit,” he noted.
When Daily Trust visited the site recently, earth moving equipment belonging to Julius Berger Plc were seen on the phase one site of the project. The phase comprises the Address Apartments, malls, amusement part with a roller coaster and an international conference centre. The Address Abuja is designed to work in harmony with nature: an exclusive community becoming part of the natural landscape and offering both an impressive downtown skyline and peaceful suburban living. This first phase is to be delivered in 2018, according to the Centenary City MD. The entire city is to be built in 10 years. A source said a former senate president has signified interest to own half of the golf course.
Land value
The land earmarked for Centenary City is more than a district. It can be more than Garki District, one valuer estimated. Chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Abuja Branch Mr Emmanuel Alao could not estimate the value of the land. But an estate agent who simply gave his name as Razaq said the land which might have been government’s stake in the investment costs between N20,000 and N25,000/sqm. If we are to go by the N20,000/sqm estimation, the 1,200 hectares cost N240 billion.
But the MD of Centenary City gave N6.3 billion as premium on the land, saying the CofO was signed by erstwhile FCT Minister Bala Mohammed on April 19, 2014. According to him, N8 billion has so far been expended on Centenary City.
Alao condemned call for outright cancellation of the project saying that will put Nigeria in bad light in the international community because there is an MoU with foreign investors and Nigeria’s image as an unstable place will get worse.
It is said that the project is on pre-sell agreement, therefore some of the apartments have been sold already, not yet built though. An apartment is sold in hundreds of millions. It was not clear to this reporter terms of the post construction management of the place.
The land taken for Centenary City was marked Wawa District in the master plan.
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