MINISTER ORDERS AGIS TO RELEASE NIDO LAND LIST

…AS BANK DECLINES TO HONOR $135,200 CHECK

The persistence of several members of Nigeria In Diaspora, America, NIDOA has paid off as the Nigerian Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Umar Modibbo has handed a mandatory directive to the Abuja Geographical Information System, AGIS, to release the full list of the beneficiaries of the Pyakas Diaspora Village in Abuja said to have been brokered by the Dr. Ola Kassim led organization.

Mr. Modibbo’s Special Adviser on Media Matters, Mr. Diran Onifade told pointblanknews.com that following the Minister’s directive the list would be made public within the next one week. According to Onifade the Minister has decided to act in deference to overwhelming public demand and the special interest the several reports done by pointblanknews.com had kindled in the Yar’Adua’s administration.

Onifade said that the AGIS did receive a check for $135,200.00 from NIDO but that the bank on whose name the check was drawn has refused to honor the check. He would not elaborate on the circumstance of the payment refusal; neither would he say whether it was a dud check. However, he said the directive concerning full disclosure would not be affected by the Bank’s refusal to honor the check. Mr. Onifade did not also give the name of the Bank of which the check was drawn.

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A former Presidential Candidate of New Democrat Party, NDP, Prof. Issa Odidi had given a fourteen day ultimatum to the leadership of the Nigerian Diaspora Organization, NIDO to publish the names of beneficiaries of the Pykasa, Abuja land allocation or risk being sued.

It would be recalled that 380 Nigerians living in Canada, United States, Brazil and others were said to have paid $400.00 application fees each for plots of land measuring 950 square meter and 3953 square meter each. A total of $152,000.00 was said to have been realized. However, not every applicant was allocated a plot of land. Out of 380 applicants, only 338 were approved for land allocation.

Calls for a full disclosure of the list of all applicants for the Pyakassa, Abuja Diaspora Land have been rebuffed by Dr. Ola Kassim, former Chairman of NIDO America and Stella Onuoha an office Manager of the Organization who both coordinated the land deal, fuelling speculations of a possible fraud.