*How I Made My Money, By Dangote
*…Pledges N550m Hostel For FUTO
By Sylvia Kodilichukwu, Enugu
Enugu State House of Assembly has blown the lid off a decade-long alleged land fraud scheme, as its Special Committee on Land Conflicts moved against officials accused of swindling hundreds of college staff and residents.
Chaired by Hon. Anthony Okechukwu Mba, lawmaker representing Nkanu East, the committee condemned what it called “rampant land grabbing, racketeering, and fraudulent sales” after receiving petitions from staff of the Enugu State College of Education and members of the public.
The petitions named the late Mrs. Ugoma Adaeze Ndibisi and Dr. Kate Okolo — former President and Secretary of the Women in College of Education Organization (WICE) — as alleged masterminds of questionable land deals.
The victims alleged that the WICE leadership introduced “WICE Land” between 2009 and 2011 and urged staff to market plots to colleagues, friends, and family, promising token commissions per sale.
Many bought in, armed with receipts and payment evidence, the Assembly heard.
But after Mrs. Ndibisi’s death, Dr. Okolo allegedly renamed the land from Ukano to Ukano Bold, increased prices, reduced plot sizes, and began denying original buyers access — insisting they never paid.
The scandal came to a head at a one-day public hearing on the floor of the House, where victims recounted 13 years of frustration.
They told lawmakers they were yet to be allotted plots despite full payment, prompting their petitions for justice.
Past and present leaders of the College of Education attended the session, but said the institution had not received any formal complaint on the matter until now.
Hon. Mba assured victims that the committee’s probe will continue until the dispute is resolved, noting that Governor Peter Mba’s administration has rolled out measures to stop illegal and multiple payments in land transactions across Enugu State, with a pledge to bring perpetrators to book.
In its first major resolution, the committee directed the Provost of the College to suspend Dr. Okolo’s salary until further notice.
The panel said the action was necessary to show the Assembly’s resolve to sanitize land administration and restore public confidence.
Lawmakers maintained that the investigation is ongoing and warned that the era of unchecked land racketeering in Enugu is over.
Dangote Pledges ₦550m Students’ Hostel in FUTO
Meanwhile, the President of Dangote Industries Limited, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has pledged to construct a ₦550 million students’ hostel for the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), to address the institution’s accommodation challenges.
Dangote, who made the announcement on Monday in Owerri during a public lecture he delivered at the university on the theme ‘Enterprise, Leadership and Service to Humanity’, also donated ₦25 million to the students through the Student Union Government (SUG).
According to him, the planned hostel project is expected to ease the shortage of student accommodation on campus and also improve their welfare.
Addressing the students, the industrialist said Nigerian youths possess enormous innovative capacity and can compete favourably anywhere in the world.
He revealed that many fresh engineering graduates recruited and trained by Dangote Refinery and Fertiliser plants had been poached by companies in the Arab Gulf region, where they are treated as expatriates.
“We face significant economic and social challenges, but we also sit on enormous opportunity: a young and energetic population, abundant natural resources, and an entrepreneurial spirit that is unmatched across the continent.
“Entrepreneurship remains one of the strongest tools for transforming challenges into opportunities.”
Dangote noted that when young people are equipped with technical skills, mentorship, and access to capital, they become job creators rather than job seekers.
”I urge you students to remain innovative, creative, and adaptable, in order to learn and position yourselves to add value to society,” he hinted.
Dangote, who shared the story of his humble beginnings in business, recalled how he started as a distributor of bagged cement and other commodities before expanding into large-scale manufacturing.
He explained that although he initially made money through commodity trading, he later chose to pursue backward integration by producing locally the goods he had previously imported.
According to him, importing finished products into Nigeria amounts to “importing poverty, inflation and unemployment,” while exporting raw materials without value addition weakens the economy.
He stressed that manufacturing remained the key to job creation, industrial growth, and national development, noting that industrialization must begin with local investors.
He stressed that citizens must take the lead in building their own economy.
“If I refuse to invest in Nigeria and Africa, no foreign investor will be willing to stake his funds here.
“Asian economies were powered by Asians, not foreign investment.
“They are the ones who invested in their countries. They did not wait for foreigners to come and develop their economies,” he stated.
