Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammad Bello, has stopped the illegal construction work on a piece of land allocated to the Embassy of the Republic of Venezuela in Abuja.
Malam Abubakar Sani, Special Assistant on Media to the Minister, made this known in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
The minister gave the directive following a complaint from the Venezuelan Government submitted by a three-man delegation.
The delegation had complained that the piece of land allocated to the Embassy in Abuja in 1991 was illegally sold out to a private company.
The leader of the delegation, Konrath Moreno, Director-General of Legal Consultancy in the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the sale of the land was not authorised by his government.
Moreno appealed to the minister to help in the recovery of the land, which he said was meant for the building of a Diplomatic residence.
Other members of the delegation included the Ambassador, David Velasquez; Madam Marisol Awarado; and a representative of the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malam Abubakar Sani.
Bello explained that records of the Federal Capital Territory Administration showed that the land in question remained the property of the Embassy of Venezuela.
This, he said, was so because the law does not permit the endorsement of sale of land belonging to a country to a private company or individual.
He said: “Information in the files indicate that some officials of your Embassy brought documents in August 2018 for registration and transfer of title.
“But the FCTA cannot transfer land title from a country to a private company.”
Bello noted that Nigeria and Venezuela enjoyed a very strong and friendly diplomatic relations, which was highly cherished.
He assured the delegation that all necessary steps would be taken to ensure the restoration of the land to its original status.
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