Babatunji Wusu –
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja has been the site of 189 fraudulent corporations, according to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
The aforementioned businesses are said to have obtained fraudulent land allocations in the Federal Capital Territory.
During a news conference in Abuja today, the commission’s Registrar General, Hussaini Magaji, said the finding was made in response to a complaint from the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to check the status of a nonexistent firm requesting land allocation.
He claimed that after learning about the fake corporation, he continued to look into the matter and discovered further businesses.
Magaji reported the detention of two people, one of whom is a lawyer, and the discovery of an illegal organization made up of members of the Abuja Geographical Information System, attorneys, and the commission.
“Let me use this chance to tell the public that one of the great accomplishments made so far since I took office is our capacity to dismantle a cartel or a network of people who are causing trouble for the commission.
We only became aware of this crime after receiving a complaint from the Federal Capital Territory Administration asking us to verify some applications made by some entities, which turned out to be non-existent on our system. “This cartel creates companies through collaboration with some lawyers claiming to be accredited agents of the commission and staff of Abuja Geographical Information System to secure land allocations in the FCT.
“I issued a directive on the subject based on the evidence at our disposal, and we have so far identified 189 phony organizations that were utilized to obtain land allocation in the FCT. Additionally, we helped two suspects get arrested,” Magaji was reported as saying by The PUNCH.
The CAC boss explained how the cartel operated, claiming that they manipulated the land process to give their requests for land allocation preference over those of other applicants, facilitating land fraud in the nation’s capital.
According to him, those participating in the illicit activity collaborate with lawyers who falsely represent themselves as authorized representatives of the commission and with employees of the Abuja Geographic Information System to create bogus businesses. They then went ahead and filed land-use applications in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), using deceptive strategies to get priority status for their requests and usurping lands that were already the subject of other applications. Their efforts had been amazingly successful up until we just learned of their illegal behavior.
“As of yesterday, we detained two suspects, among them a lawyer, and are questioning them in order to learn more about the cartel’s other members and crack down on them.
“During the course of our inquiry and study, we discovered that the companies are not real. We managed to apprehend a suspect with the assistance of security guards, and as a result of his detention, he provided us with some information. As a result, we have a hint that something similar is taking place, and we are making every effort to put an end to this threat, Magaji continued.
In addition, the registrar-general pledged to expand the commission’s income base by imposing sanctions on businesses that fail to disclose their yearly returns, among other sanctions.
He claimed that expanding the commission’s revenue base will help it achieve its goal of being a top-tier commission.
