[REVEALED] How Jonathan’s Ministers, Aides, Shared 500 Federal Government Houses

A report according to Sun News reveals that Influential ministers and aides of for­mer President Goodluck Jonathan were among those who allegedly shared over 500 Federal Government houses located in high brow areas of Abuja and Lagos as parting gifts from the immediate past administration.

Beside the influential ministers and top pres­idential aides, heads of some powerful feder­al agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the armed forces as well as top military officers are also beneficiaries of the last minute largesse of the Jonathan’s administration, as documents sight­ed in the office of the Secretary to the Govern­ment of the Federation (SGF) have revealed.

Curiously, most of the beneficiaries have one common feature; the allocation of the houses to them was not done in their individual names but in the names of front-companies and/or faceless companies.

Another interesting development is that with the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to probe the Jonathan administration with a view to recovering billions of public funds and assets illegally taken by top officials of the immediate past government, many of the ben­eficiaries of the last minute sharing of public assets have abandoned the properties, most of which are now under lock and key and over­grown with weeds while others have refused to pay for the properties to avoid losing their money in the event that the Buhari government choses to revoke the sales.

A source in the SGF office told Saturday Sun that properties whose owners are now scared to take possession of them are scattered all over Asokoro and Maitama areas of Abuja as well as Ikeja GRA, Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Apapa areas of Lagos.

Investigations by Saturday Sun revealed that the abandoned properties are more in Lagos. They litter Emotan road, Apapa GRA; Liver­pool road, Apapa, Marine road, Apapa; Park lane and Childavenue, both also in Apapa. In Ikoyi, they are located at Oyinkan Abayomi (Former Queen’s Drive) and Bourdillion road where the EFCC boss, Ibrahim Lamorde has his allocation; a mansion and two bungalows on a large expanse of land.

It was also gathered that while some of the former ministers and presidential aides have their allocations in Abuja, top military officers and some heads of government agencies have theirs in Lagos. Further investigations show that the former ministers, presidential aides and Heads of Departments and Agencies were allo­cated Guest Houses and other buildings owned by their MDAs at ridiculous prices.

The source, who is a top official of the SGF office, however, told Saturday Sun that most of the houses were abandoned because “the owners are obviously looking for private sec­tor individuals that can buy them as many of them didn’t really get the allocations to live in the houses, they only want to sell them off and make profit.”

When asked why the allocations were done in the names of companies rather than the names of the actual beneficiaries, the top offi­cial said: “Most of the owners got the houses while still in government and they wouldn’t like to disclose such huge assets in their assets declaration forms with the Code of Conduct Bureau because of the questions on the source of the funds used to pay for such. We’re only the ones who knows who owns what but if you follow the table of allocations, you will only find names of companies as beneficiaries.”

The source, however, exonerated the com­mittee in charge of the houses which is directly in charge of some of the sales of any complici­ty, adding: “Decisions and approvals more of­ten than not, come from the Presidency.”

“The committee also has no control over which name will be used for the purpose of allocation and what such beneficiaries do with the properties afterwards”, the official added.

Beside the sales done by the committee, it was also learnt that some public institutions like the NNPC, PHCN, NPA and CBN handled the sales of some of their properties based on approval from the Presidency. It was said that some of the controversial sales could have been done by the ministries and agencies that have presidential approval to dispose of their own assets.

Another source in the Ministry of Lands and Housing however said that the number of houses allocated was far lower than 500. The source, who is an official of the ministry, dis­closed: “It is true that some requests for allo­cation came towards the end of the last admin­istration but the real allocation was tactically delayed by some officials to avoid running into trouble with the then in-coming Buhari admin­istration.”