Abuja natives bicker over land swap policy

The Abuja Original Inhabitants Coalition Group has kicked against the recent call by its sister association, Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja (OIDA), to scrap the Land Swap programme initiated by the FCT administration aimed at infrastructural development of the territory.
OIDA had called on the incoming FCT administration to scrap the Land Swap policy, even as they described it as a conduit pipe for allocation of massive land to cronies of the outgoing PDP-led federal government.
However, in a swift reaction, the Abuja Original Inhabitants Coalition Group described the call as myopic and not a true reflection of all original inhabitants of Abuja, stressing that such call was aimed at misleading the incoming administration.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, the Coordinator of the group, Engr. Danjuma Bussa, said before the implementation of the Land Swap policy, the FCT administration convoked a town hall meeting to engage all stakeholders on the viability of the programme.
The group added that the Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja was duly represented in the stakeholders meeting and subsequent committees.
“It is an indisputable fact that before the implementation of the Land Swap policy, the FCT administration convened a Town Hall meeting of all stakeholders at the International Conference Center to discuss the viability of the policy.
“This group of people clamouring for the scraping of the policy was part of the committee that submitted its memoranda for the success of the policy. We all examined some of the identified loopholes and make necessary amendments. It will be unjust and undemocratic for the incoming government to scrap such policy by fiat without involving all the stakeholders.
“To be candid, we are taking aback by the recent call by OIDA to scrap the Land Swap policy. We want to state in clear terms that it is not a true position of all the original inhabitants of Abuja.
“We want to equally state unequivocal that few people cannot stay in their comfort zone and impose their selfish and myopic position on the rest of us. Such action and decision is anti-democratic, bias, selfish and unproductive”, he said.
Bussa noted that one of the drawbacks of the nation’s capital was undoing the good policies of previous administrations, while calling on incoming government to be weary of impostors of democratic culture, who are calling for the appointment of an FCT indigene as minister.