Members of the House of Representatives Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has taken the Minister, Mallam Mohammed Bello, to task over plethora of abandoned projects, especially roads in the nation’s capital.
This happened on Thursday, when the committee engaged Bello in the 2021 FCT budget defence session.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Abdulahi Garba, has constituted a 7-man sub panel to interface with authorities of the FCT administration and the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), over collection of tenement rate
Also, the committee members lamented the level of insecurity in some areas of the city, where they said miscreants and criminals have taken over.
The minister was therefore tasked to urgently address the proliferation of shanties, development of satelite towns, and transportation challenges
Responding to the issue of abandoned projects, the minister however stated that appreciable progress had been made in the last five years, especially on the Airport Road, blaming the challenge on the FCT budget which has been brought down from an annual figure of about N180 billion to about N90 billion last year.
“The administration thereby depleting the meagre resources available for the development of the City. The liabilities on such payments currently stands at about N2.2billion out of which Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning accepted and made the provision of N1,183,713,250.00 as provided in the 2021 Budget, being the expenditure item,” the minister stated
