“We are on order from the Chief of the Army Staff to take over this place and not to allow anyone in or out of the premises,” a soldier, mounting sentry at the first gate, warned a journalist, who attempted to penetrate the compound. “It was one of our generals, who led the team of soldiers to take over this place, last night, but we do not know the reason for our being here,” the soldier said, refusing to disclose his name.
‘No to Jonathan District’
The point remains that as of the time of the invasion, there has been no claim by Kakartar that the said land belongs to it. Findings show that even when a former FCT Minister renamed the district after Jonathan, the former President swiftly rejected the ‘Jonathan District’ appellation and ordered the said minister to revert to the popularly known ‘Maitama Extension’. A scrutiny of the list of the owners of the allocation shows that the former President was not even allocated any plot in the said district by the FCDA, which, however, generously gave vast parcels of land to former heads of state, serving and former top military officials, top former ruling party leaders and some powerful and influential traditional and religious leaders in the country.
In short, the Maitama Extension was carefully planned as highbrow residency for the mighty and powerful in the doorsteps of the military barracks for added security. Perhaps, that explains why it was tucked on the fringes of the Lungi Barracks, near the powerful Brigades of Guards Headquarters of the Nigerian Army between Asokoro and Maitama Districts. And, as an unwritten but operational rule, in every district where FCDA awards contract for the development of infrastructure, it is customary for the contractor to be provided with a temporary space for building of its site offices. The FCDA also maintains an oversight function offices in the yard to provide supervision for the contractor in the execution of the contract. It is, perhaps, for that reason, that Kakatar was provided with an area to use as its temporary site yard to execute the contract awarded to it by then Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed in 2011.
The district was actually designated as such by Senator Adamu Aliero, the Minister of the FCT under Yar’ Adua government in 2008 alongside Katampe and Katampe Extension. Virtually all the plots were alloted by that regime to various allottees. It was eventually awarded to Kakatar for the development of the infrastructure and made history as the first Abuja district’s infrastructural development project in the history of the FCT to be awarded to a wholly Nigerian construction and engineering firm and the company never shied away from its responsibility. Under the project, Kakatar is to construct a total of 23 kilometres of road of various types, one major bridge to link the various communities, provide 26.4 kilometres length of storm water line of various sizes, 31.8 kilometres length of four sewer line of various sizes; 38.7 kilometres length of water supply lines with relevant accessories and a booster pump station and 1000m3 of clean water reservoir. In addition, the company is expected to construct a network of electricity distribution and telecommunication ducts with a 33 KV/11KV injection substation and 11/0.415KV transformer as well as underground cables for distribution and plot connections.
