FCTA to recover ministries’ lands allocated for other purposes

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has charged ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that have lands allocated to them under the FCT Master-plan to come forward to regularise them by processing their titles. The minister said this is one way of safeguarding such titles against encroachment or inadvertent reallocation.   Bello made […]

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has charged ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that have lands allocated to them under the FCT Master-plan to come forward to regularise them by processing their titles.

The minister said this is one way of safeguarding such titles against encroachment or inadvertent reallocation.  

Bello made this call when his Ministry of Interior counterpart, retired Lt-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.

The minister disclosed that the FCT Administration 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 are working at the areas at the Ahmadu Bello and Shehu Shagari ways, especially trying to identify lands within the designated areas that were originally meant for ministries but over the years were inadvertently allocated for other purposes.

“Wherever it is practical and possible, we will try to recover these lands,” Bello said.

The FCT minister also indicated that the FCT Administration was 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, retired Lt-Gen. Dambazau urged the FCT Administration to have a closer look at the small markets that are springing up around the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the FCT, saying some of the markets have been turned to platforms for sale of dangerous and prohibited drugs.

Speaking on the Old Secretariat building housing the Ministry of Interior, Dambazau said, the ministry was looking for a befitting area to erect a new Secretariat that would reflect its image and importance. 

The ministry, he said, warehouses the five major paramilitary organisations charged with the responsibility of maintaining the internal security and public safety in the country. 

He expressed hope that they would be properly accommodated to perform their functions effectively.