Abuja - The immediate past Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has declared that he had no regret over the various demolitions effected during his tenure.

Mallam el-Rufai who, for over four hours, testified at the on-going Senate public hearing on the activities of the FCT Administration since 1999 said he acted within the law.

“I have no apology. I acted according to law. I applied the law as it is,’’ he said. El-Rufai, however, apologised to those who had valid Certificates of Occupancy (C of O), but whose houses had to be demolished for the restoration of the Abuja Master Plan.

Told that the demolitions had caused the death of several victims, el-Rufai retorted: “There is nothing like people dying as a result of demolition or out of frustration. Such allegations cannot be true. People can die at anytime. Even a day old baby dies.”

The former minister denied ever disobeying any court order served on him, pointing out that the court injunction against the ejection of the late Justice Bashir Sambo was not served on him.

He rubbished claims by his successor, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo, that a building belonging to the former Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was wrongly demolished.

He also said the decision to sell the guest houses of the Vice-President was taken by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, adding that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar sought but subsequently dithered to purchase one of the guest houses, and that his decision not to constitute a land use allocation committee as required by the Land Use Decree was given the approval of the former President.

El-Rufai appeared before the Senate joint committees yesterday following the appearance of his two predecessors in office, Alhaji Bunu Sheriff and Mohammed Abba Gana.

Gana during his appearance before the committee rejected the rigid adherence to a master plan for the federal capital, saying the fact that the Constitution of the country was subject to amendment made it inexcusable not to update the master plan of the city.

Gana who sought forgiveness from city dwellers for any offense committed during his stewardship also said as N132 billion was lost through demolitions in the federal capital.

El-Rufai is due to resume his appearance next Wednesday after a plea by him to the Committee to allow him return to England for his exams next week was turned down.

Asked to react to the confession of his successor, Dr. Modibbo, that Ali’s building was wrongly demolished, el-Rufai who in a submission to the Committee accused his successor of waging a media war against him said: “I am telling the truth as I know it.  I would not lie before this committee. I am human and if I made a mistake I will admit it. No human being is incapable of making a mistake.

“He (Ali) was given the plot in 1994. This is the satellite imagery. This is the water line, it is sitting squarely on the water line,” el-Rufai said as he presented the satellite imagery of the area where the building is located to the panellists.

“What I am trying to establish Sir, I was Minister then and I was given information and based on the information I took certain decisions. This is the basis. I have a complete set of documents I will give you,” he said. On the apology of the current minister, he said: “I cannot speak for the current Minister or the basis for his information. I  am a member of the PDP and Senator Sidi Ali can say the effort I made to get him elected when I was a minister. But what is right is right, this was what I told Ahmadu Ali because I am very close to Ahamadu Ali.

“I went to Senator Ahmadu Ali, he went to Balewa College like me and I am very proud of that. We have a good relationship and I still go to his house. I persuaded him that this is an opportunity for us as a party in power to show that if the leaders of the party are caught by the rules, we apply them.

“The FCT Water Board drew my attention to it close to one year before we took that decision and I discussed with him. Dr Ahmadu Ali even said he didn’t agree that the water line passed that way. He said the pipe did not pass there, it passed a few metres away but I said my water board has said it is there. “He said give me some time and I will get people to dig and I will show you where your pipe is passing. I said how much time do you need, he said two weeks and I said I give you four weeks. It was only after four weeks that I took the matter to Mr. President,” el-Rufai said.

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