Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike has given reasons for the obliteration of properties in the country’s seat of power, saying he will not be swayed by blackmail.
Wike said the structures being obliterated by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) are properties illicitly built on government lands.
“Let me use this opportunity to tell Nigerians and residents of Abuja, we are not afraid of blackmailing,” the minister said during the distribution of operational vehicles to security agencies at the FCTA Secretariat in Abuja on Thursday.
“In fact, you cannot be in this kind of position and say you cannot be blackmailed, particularly as regards this Abuja. There are so many land grabbers. Some of us have come to put our feet down. Let heaven fall. It is even better that heaven comes down now so that we would not be fasting again to go to heaven.”
As of late, the FCTA has intensified the obliteration of what it regards as unlawful structures in Abuja’s estates and shanties.
As indicated by Wike, while some of the structures pose security risks, the rest were built on lands belonging to the government.
The move has set off kickbacks and protests, but Wike has insisted there is no option but to press onward and vowed to go after more unlawfully erected structures and shanties.
“We would stop anybody who thinks they will take government land for whatever reason without formal approval. We would not look at your face. If you like be a civil rights activist or a television personality,” Wike, the immediate past governor of Rivers State, said during the event.
“What is wrong, is wrong; no amount of blackmail can stop us. People take government property without approval or documentation.”
Wike’s remark came on the same day that the Senate requested a probe into the demolitions in the FCT, setting up a panel to investigate the turn of events.
The Senate’s move followed a motion sponsored by the Senator representing FCT Ireti Kingibe who raised concerns over the demolitions and called for an order to stop them.
It additionally set up an investigative panel, headed by the Deputy Senate Jibrin Barau – to probe the demolitions. The group is supposed to also invite Wike to the Senate so he can explain the reasons for the demolitions in the nation’s capital.
