FHA Fires Back At Developers Over Land Grabbing Allegations

The management of the Federal Housing Authority has dismissed allegations of land grabbing, extortion and administrative high-handedness levelled against its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Oyetunde Ojo, describing the claims as baseless and misleading.

In a statement signed by the FHA’s Head of Public Affairs, Kenneth Chigelu, on Sunday,
the Authority accused some media organisations, including Daily Nigerian, Leadership and ThisDay, of publishing allegations by a purported coalition of estate developers without seeking the agency’s side of the story.

The FHA said the group behind the accusations were not genuine developers but professional land grabbers frustrated by reforms introduced by the current management.

According to the Authority, the launch of a digitalisation programme on May 1, 2024, ended analogue operations and curtailed practices such as loss of files, double allocations and document forgery.

The agency stated that the digitisation process, alongside the deployment of a MAX 350 drone for land mapping and monitoring, had improved transparency and enabled the identification of illegally encroached properties.

It added that a Verification, Regularisation and Ratification exercise was conducted nationwide to allow genuine allottees with incomplete documentation to regularise their property records.

The FHA maintained that many individuals who could not provide proof of ownership resorted to media attacks after failing to benefit from loopholes in the old system.

The Authority also denied allegations of delays in land development approvals, insisting that approvals are now processed within two weeks through its One Stop Shop platform, provided applicants submit complete documentation.

It further stated that stricter measures had been introduced to prevent the undervaluation of statutory fees, a move it said had affected individuals allegedly collaborating with compromised officials to short-change the agency.

The FHA reaffirmed its commitment to transparency and accountability, stressing that it would not be distracted by what it described as blackmail from disgruntled land grabbers.

The agency challenged members of the alleged coalition to publicly identify themselves and provide genuine proof of land allocation and verification documents.

It also urged the public to disregard the allegations, insisting that efforts to reposition the Authority and safeguard government property would continue uninterrupted.