I’ll step on toes, Abuja minister threatens

WORRIED over the distortion and violation of the master plan in the nation’s capital territory, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Senator Bala Mohammed, yesterday,

threatened that his administration was prepared to step on toes in restoring the distorted master plan to its original plan as conceived by the founding fathers.

Mohammed said Abuja will not be allowed to go the way of other older cities in the country, just as he set up a committee saddled with the responsibility of identifying all violations on the Abuja Master Plan, noting that the action would help the administration in reversing such violations accordingly.

The minister who spoke after the FCT Executive Committee stressed that President Goodluck Jonathan had expressed concern over what he termed “these unwarranted violations” and directed that such encroachments should not be allowed to stand as they affect the Abuja Master Plan.

Senator Mohammed warned that the FCT Administration under him was committed and determined to correct all the wrongs perpetuated on the Abuja Master Plan.
The minister who instructed the committee to identify all the violations and extent of the violations, said it would urgently remedy such desecration because “ no part of the Abuja Master Plan would be compromised.”

According to him, the committee’s job would be a key to restoring the Abuja Master Plan, even as he urged members of the committee to take the job very seriously by giving it the attention it deserves.

The Committee which has the executive secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA, Engr. Adamu Ismaila as the Chairman, has the  FCT Directors of Land Administration, Development Control, Abuja Geographic Information System, Urban and Regional Planning, Mapping and Survey, Parks and Recreation as well as representatives of the FCT Transportation Secretariat and Social Development Secretariat as members.

He remarked that all encroached plots when identified and recovered be deed and titled in the names of respective Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDAs) to avoid future bastardization.