The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) said it has discovered 189 bogus businesses used to acquire property allocations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Registrar General of the commission, Hussaini Magaji, made the announcement during a news conference on Tuesday, October 24, in Abuja.
He claimed that the finding of the non-existent firm prompted him to conduct more research, which resulted in the identification of other companies.
According to Magaji, the finding was made in response to a request from the Federal Capital Territory Administration to check the status of a non-existent firm requesting land allotment.
He 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.
The CAC head explained their style of operation, saying the cartel manipulated the land process to give their applications for land allocation preference over current applications, facilitating land fraud in the capital city.
He noted: “The nature of their crime is 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, manoeuvring 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.
“In the course of our investigation and research, we found that the companies do not exist. And 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 stated that boosting the commission’s financial base will allow it to achieve its goal of being a world-class commission.