News Desk
New minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike has vowed to step on toes to ensure that Abuja, the nation’s capital is sanitised for residents, Nigerians and other visitors.
Wike, who stated this in Abuja on Monday during a media chat after taking over as the new FCT minister, said in the next six months, residents of the nation’s capital and other Nigerians will see positive changes taking place in Abuja.
The new FCT minister frowned that many things are wrong in the nation’s capital, especially insecurity, lack of street lights, illegal structures, illegal motor parks and bus stops, adding that the new administration will tackle the challenges as soon as possible.
He stated that it is no longer business as usual in Abuja, adding that all illegal structures in the nation’s capital will be removed, while uncompleted buildings scattered in the city centre will be taken over by the administration if the owners fail to complete them.
Wike also warned that all illegal bus stops and motor parks, including illegal markets and hawking all over the territory will be removed, as part of restoring the hope of Nigerians in the territory.
Wike said he has the backing of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to bring sanity to the nation’s capital, saying that security of residents of the city will be given a top priority by the new administration.
He vowed to stop the illegal rearing of cows in Abuja city centre,, which according to him is an eyesore, adding that cows should be reared in the forest and not on the streets of Abuja.
He said the new FCT administration will also introduce new seamless transportation system for residents to reduce transportation challenge for residents, while land racketeering and revenue leakages will be stopped.
According to him, “We are not happy that many things have gone wrong in Abuja, the nation’s capital. So, we are here as a new administration to bring sanity to the city. For instance, there is a reported case of an increase in insecurity in the nation’s capital and I will assure that we will tackle it.
Let me also inform you that we have the backing of Mr President and we will ensure that we do the right things to sanitise Abuja for the interest of all.
Also, all illegal developments in the nation’s capital will go down to give way for restoration of the master plan of the nation’s capital. And if we must do this, we are going to step on toes, in our efforts to do the right things.”
He continued, “It is not going to be business as usual in FCT, so many people have complained that the territory has lost focus, some say this is not the FCT they know.
It is not the FCT we thought will compete with the cities of the world, this is the time that we must show that the FCT can compete with other cities of the world.
Security in FCT has gone down, the city supposed to be one of the safest places. Issue of security must be tackled first, we will provide the necessary logistics for the security agencies to work.
I don’t want any excuses for failure, when we provide the necessary things to work, what we want is results, if we don’t safeguard FCT we are gone. Look at people stealing manholes and so on.
The security agencies should identify the black spots in city so that we will flush out the criminals.”
Techrectory reports from Abuja.
