Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has called on ministries and agencies that have lands allocated to them, in the FCT Master-plan to regularise such land by processing their titles.
Speaking when he received the minister of interior, Lt Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau, in his office, Bello explained that this is one way of safeguarding such titles against encroachments or inadvertent re-allocations.
He disclosed that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) was working to recover all lands in Abuja that were originally designated for ministries and agencies in the Abuja master-plan, but were unwittingly allocated for other purposes.
“With respect to allocation of land to Ministry of Interior and many other ministries that are not housed in the main secretariat, we trying to identify land within the designated areas that were originally meant for the ministries, but over the years were inadvertently allocated for other purposes. Wherever it is practical and possible, we will try to recover these lands.”
The minister also indicated that the administration is also trying to revive the project for the expansion of the Federal Secretariat to provide befitting office accommodation for other ministries that are not housed in the main secretariat.
Earlier in his remark, the minister of interior, Abdulrahman Danbazau, had urged the administration to look closely at the small markets that are springing up around the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the FCT, noting that some of the markets have been turned to platforms for sale of dangerous and prohibited drugs.
“Some of them will claim they are IDPs from the northeast; of course, there is need for us to accommodate these displaced persons, but we have to do it in a way that it does not have negative consequences on security.
I thought I should seize this opportunity to bring it up so that we can put heads together and know precisely how to deal with the situation,” he said.
Speaking on the Old Secretariat Building, housing the Ministry of Interior, Danbazzau said, the ministry is looking for a befitting area to erect a new secretariat that would reflect the image and importance of the ministry.
He maintained that the ministry houses the five major paramilitary organizations, charged with the responsibility of maintaining the internal security and public safety in the country, adding that the ministry should be properly accommodated to perform its functions effectively.
“We’ve tried everything we can do on our own to renovate the old building. We have carried out an extension from the main building with the permission of the FCTA, which we are still working on. Still it’s an area that we thought we should be able to relocate. We want to make that request for land for a new secretariat.”
