{"id":66401,"date":"2023-09-05T21:32:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T21:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=66401"},"modified":"2023-09-05T21:32:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T21:32:50","slug":"tinubu-approves-8-commissioners-for-wike-minister-vows-to-collect-n34b-debt-from-land-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=66401","title":{"rendered":"Tinubu approves 8 &#8216;commissioners&#8217; for Wike; Minister vows to collect N34b debt from land owners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of eight Mandate Secretaries for the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA). The Secretaries are equivalent of commissioners in the 36 States, and are assist the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, run Abuja.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">According to a statement by the Director of Press in the Minister&#8217;s office, Mr. Anthony Ogunleye, they are<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Bitrus L. Garki, Secretary, Area Council Services Secretariat; Lawan Kolo Geidam, Secretary, Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat; and Danlami Ihayyo appointed Secretary, Education Secretariat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Dr. Adedolapo A. Fasawe, is Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretariat; Barrister Salman Dako, Secretary, Legal Services Secretariat; Barrister Chinedum Elechi, Secretary, Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and PPP.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Also appointed are Arch. Uboku Tom Nyah, Secretary, Transportation Secretariat; and Alhaji Muntari Abdulkadir, Secretary, Social Development Secretariat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">The swearing-in of the newly appointed Secretaries will take place next week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Meanwhile, the Minister, Nyesom Wike, has vowed to collect over N34 billion owed the FCT Administration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">The Minister spoke at a meeting in his office with members of the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee to Investigate Failure of Mass Transportation in Nigeria.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">The Minister warned allottees owing the Administration for ground rents to either pay or have their property revoked and reallocated to those who could pay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">His words: \u201cI have calculated the debt of non-payment of ground rent, which is about N34 billion and I am going to collect all of those back. I don\u2019t care all I want is for the rent to be paid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">\u201cWe will be publishing on Thursday for all those, who are meant to pay their ground rent. They will be given the grace of two weeks to pay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">\u201cWhoever doesn\u2019t pay, I\u2019ll revoke it and give it to whoever will pay so that the necessary services will be rendered. People want to live in a beautiful city but don\u2019t want to pay their dues which is impossible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">According to him, \u201cI will tie projects to this IGR so that contractors would be paid yearly and projects would no more be abandoned.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Reacting to why Lagos was succeeding in public transportation but Abuja was not, Wike explained that Lagos was a state while the \u201cFCT is like a State\u201d; stressing that budgetary provision for the FCT was poor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">\u201cOur budgeting system is too poor\u2026so how will it work? We\u2019ll require your help too. Thank God I am the one to supervise this year\u2019s budget. We will come to you, please don\u2019t pursue us\u201d, he appealed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">On the Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company (AUMTCO), he said: \u201cThe truth of the matter is that, am gonna overhaul the entire system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">He disclosed that N2 billion was approved for palliatives by President Bola Tinubu for FCT in the Federal Government\u2019s subsidy programme and his \u201cconcern was transportation, but I need to know where are we\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">The Minister lamented that AUMTCO buses were been loaned out for other uses without maintenance because \u201cPeople think that government business is not their business, but where you work should be your concern\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">On the proliferation of abandoned projects in FCT, Wike revealed that the FCT was owing contractors about N1 trillion for the projects, stating that he would not initiate new ones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">\u201cYou must do what you can at a time, and leave those you cannot for other governments\u2026.Everyone is a problem. We do our own, you do your own, and everyone does his own.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Commenting on the \u201cpoorly negotiated\u201d Wasa affordable housing contract, the Minister wondered why over N1 billion would be spent by government to provide infrastructure for investors to build and make billions while government gets nothing,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">\u201cAll those things, am gonna cancel them\u201d, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee, Afam Victor Ogene, stated that his committee visited the Minister to find solutions to epileptic mass transportation in the country and FCT after over N16 billion had been put into it during Sure-P.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">He disclosed that they discovered Abuja Light Rail was \u201ca mirage of itself\u201d during their visit to the site, and found out that Abuja, which used to be dark at night, suddenly is not as they could see fictional streetlight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">\u201cMany people are saying Wike is this, Wike is that, but we need more of Wike\u201d, he stated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">\u201cAbuja is fine but it doesn\u2019t have organized systems and some people are not willing to come Abuja and we are missing revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">\u201cWe are here to encourage you to also look into transportation to organize it. We will support you to do it and it will also solve problems of \u2018one chance\u2019 in the city\u201d, he pledged.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">\u25aa\ufe0e Additional report by <strong>Abuja Digest<\/strong>.<\/span><!--\/data\/user\/0\/com.samsung.android.app.notes\/files\/clipdata\/clipdata_bodytext_230905_222941_838.sdocx--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of eight Mandate Secretaries for the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA). The Secretaries are equivalent of commissioners in the 36 States, and are assist the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, run Abuja. According to a statement by the Director of Press in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":57701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[579,6174,742],"class_list":["post-66401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","category-news","tag-commissioners","tag-n34b","tag-wike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}