By Joshua Egbodo
Abuja
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammad Musa Bello, has disclosed that the Federal Capital Territory (FCTA) had begun the review of the original Abuja Master Plan of 1979.
Bello who spoke during an interactive session with the Hon. Herman Hembe-led House Committee on the FCT, said the ministry would organize a stakeholders’ conference on the matter in the first quarter of 2017.
“We feel that the Abuja Master Plan should be reviewed. In fact, we have already started working on that, and by March 2017, we will hold a stakeholders’ conference on that. We have already commenced a series of interventions,” he told the committee.
The Minister, who explained that the FCT could not cater for the massive influx of Nigerians from different parts of the country into Abuja, noted that the administration had commenced works on the creation of informal markets within the city to serve residents at weekends.
On the House’s recent resolution on the collection of tenement rates in the FCT, Bello also told the committee that the ministry had suspended the collection pending when all issues surrounding it were resolved.
“Those collecting the taxes have been directed to stop. We’re also trying and communicating to the residents on the exact position. By the time the pending issues are sorted out, all previous payments made would be adjusted. Where there is an under-payment, refund would be made and vice-versa. We know that taxes are good for good governance, but we require a good system of taxation for people to contribute their own fair share to the development of the country.”
Earlier, the chairman of the committee, Hembe said the interaction was necessitated by the need to get the FCTA efforts at addressing certain concerns as expressed in some of the resolutions of the House.