Retired Assistant Manager at the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Michael Okoye and witness against former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has told an Abuja High Court that El-Rufai allocated Plot 1201, Asokoro District, Abuja, belonging to PHCN to himself.
He said the PHCN was allocated the property for the construction of a 132/33 KVA transmitting/injection sub-station in the FCT by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), but was taken over by the former Minister who has been accused of illegally converting land to his personal use and also allocating to two of his wives, Hadiza and Hasiya.
Standing trial with El-Rufai for abuse of office and illegal conversion of land in Abuja for personal use are a former Director-General of the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS), Altine Jibrin and an ex-General Manager of AGIS, Ismail Iro.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has accused the former Minister for using his office to allocate 10 plots of land in Asokoro District to members of his family between 2003 and 2007.
Mr. Okoye, who said he was in charge of the Project Department of PHCN, claimed the power company got the land in 2003 and while being led in evidence by EFCC counsel, Wahab Ibiwole, he said he noticed soon afterwards that the plot had being encroached on.
He said that although he quickly erected a fence to secure the plot, but that the fence was later pulled down even though he did not know who carried out the act.
He further said that as a result of the encroachment, the plot was reduced from 2.5 hectares to 1.5 hectares just as he denied that the PHCN showed any intention to reduce the size of the plot before he disengaged from service in June 2008.
He revealed that the PHCN had explained to the former Minister that it still needed the land for the construction of the station which will improve power supply to residents of the city and that the PHCN had to write a letter of complaint to the Minister of Power to express their displeasure over the situation.
After various arguments, Justice Abubakar Umar of an Abuja High Court adjourned the trial to December 11 after Mr. Agabi sought for an adjournment so he could attend a lecture of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Abuja where he is expected to deliver a paper.
Recall that a former executive secretary of the FCDA, Mohammed Alhassan, had testified in December 2011 that he had sent a letter to the PHCN to inform the company of the allocation of the plot attributing the error of not putting a date in the letter to oversight.
