By SUNDAY ABBA, Abuja
Nigeria’s Surveyor General of the Federation (SGoF) Surv. Abudulganiyu Adebomehin has dismissed alleged sale of government lands worth over N16 billion as baseless, and threatened legal action to save his family’s name.
Adebomehin stated this on Friday in Abuja while interacting with Journalists in his office.
He said contrary to the claims, his office does not have the right or capacity to sell government lands, noting those raising such allegations were trying to take over his seat despite him growing through the ranks to attain the position.
“They claimed that I was not doing good; and if i’m not doing good, this is the first time this office is promoting 30 candidates at a go to various cadre. We have never had it that way before.
“I grew from the scratch, I joined the service in 1993 as a level 8 step 2 officer,” he said, noting that it was the minimum level and step which were the minimum and meant for those without experience at all that he was privileged to join the service with.
The Surveyor General said the allegations which started on 2022 were becoming messy coming from “one man interested in the seat of Surveyor General of the Federation”.
He said while his personal name could be maligned without repercussions, his family name remains a no-go-area.
“That name is so precious to me; they can play with my own name, I don’t care , but nobody should call my family a stupid family, that is one thing we would like to take up, and I want to believe my family will take that up when it is time,” he said.
He said in line with the Civil service rule, he had written to the Head of Service alleging threats to life and job but no action was taken.
He also disclosed that he had also petitioned the Inspector General of Police who promised to investigate further the matter but still the allegations continue without substantive evidence to back claims.
He explained “You said there was a sale of government property, where is the receipt of sales, where is the owner, where is the buyer?
“You’ve been saying this since 2022, this is 2024, nobody has come up to say I am in charge of this property or that property but what really happened in the sense was that the office of Surveyor General of the federation is the biggest bride you have when it comes to land, those lands that belong to the office, given to the office by the federal ministry of works.
“People encroach on the land in one way or the other, maybe, because they have the people at the the top; they would rush to the minister who would now say, okay, since this has happened, and it’s an encroachment, let them pay a fine, and in most cases the fine is not even commensurate with half of what they encroached upon.
“One of the lands they claimed I sold in Ilorin is part of it, where we have about four people different people occupying a portion of our land and putting up a structure. We made a complaint but nothing was done and what they could say was that I’ve sold the land, when and where?
“And if there were such transactions, why not carry out a further investigation on those people that are on the land, how came about it and became owner of those lands. The same thing with Imo, Anambra, and Kano States.”