The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has discovered 189 fake companies used for land allocations in the Federal Capital Territory.
This was revealed on Tuesday at a briefing held by the Registrar-General of CAC, Hussaini Magaji
The CAC boss said it made the discovery while responding to a request from the Federal Capital Territory Administration to verify the status of an unnamed company seeking land allocation.
Magaji said, “Let me use this opportunity to inform the public that one of the major milestones achieved so far since I assumed office, is our ability to bust a cartel or a link of individuals that are creating havoc for the commission.
“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 and we only knew this crime after 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.
“With the information available to us, I gave a directive on the issue, and we have so far identified 189 fake companies used to secure land allocation in the FCT. We have also facilitated the arrest of two suspects.”
He explained that the nature of their crime is that they create fake entities through connivance with some lawyers claiming to be accredited agents of the commission and staff of Abuja geographical information system and apply for land at the FCT
He said they manoeuvre their “ways to a priority application over existing application in other to take over lands and they have been quite successful before we discovered it.
“As of yesterday, we arrested two suspects including a lawyer and we are interrogating them to get more information and clampdown on other members of this cartel.”
Magaji explained that in the course of CAC’s investigation and research, the commission found that the companies do not exist.
“With the collaboration of security agents, we arrested a suspect and by arresting him, he has volunteered some information and from that, we have gotten a clue that something like this is happening and we are working hard to stop this menace,” he added.
