From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Federal House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mohammed Bello, to appear before it over deteriorating security and infrastructural decay in the Nigerian capital.
This followed the adoption of a motion by the deputy minority leader, Toby Okechukwu, on the ‘urgent need to arrest the fast deterioration of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)’ during Monday’s plenary.
Okechukwu, in his motion, expressed concerns over the security situation in Abuja, stating that the capital city has never been unsafe as it is presently.
The lawmaker added that besides ‘the influx of bandits and other criminals, lack of modern security infrastructures in the city centre and the satellite towns,’ the infrastructure was also collapsing.
He identified the challenges confronting the FCT to include “the indiscriminate allocation of lands without a matching infrastructural development.
‘The acute lack of infrastructure in the satellite towns and the resort by tax-paying citizens to self-help in Territory that should ordinarily model rural development in Nigeria.
‘The allocation of lands in Green Areas in clear breach of the FCT Master Plan.
‘The worsening poor waste management practice in the FCT, including dearth and poor maintenance of waste treatment plants, despite Minister of State, FCT’s claim of N8 billion annual expenditure on waste management in the FCT.’
Okechukwu added that ‘the far-reaching consequences of the absence of a full complement of the FCTA’s administrative structures for about two years since the appointment of the FCT Minister, including the non-appointment of Mandate Secretaries, equivalents of commissioners at the state level, to form the FCT Executive Council.’