‘Abuja has never been this unsafe’ Reps query FCT minister over insecurity

Mohammed Bello, the minister of the federal capital territory (FCT) has been summoned by the House of Representatives over the insecurity in Abuja.

Bello was summoned after Toby Okechukwu, the deputy minority leader of the house moved a motion of urgent public importance which was adopted.

Okechukwu who noted that urgent steps must be taken to protect lives and property in the FCT, lamented over the dilapidated state of infrastructure in the country’s capital and also noted that even streetlights have been left unrepaired.

He said;

“Abuja has never been as unsafe as it is today due, among others, to the influx of bandits and other criminals, lack of modern security infrastructures in the city centre and the satellite towns, and non-maintenance of available ones, including CCTV installations and as little as streetlights,” he said.

“There are concerns that the poor city management bedevilling the FCT is resulting in obvious disorderliness and widespread deterioration, with serious concern the indiscriminate allocation of lands without a matching infrastructural development; and acute lack of infrastructure in the satellite towns and the resort by tax-paying citizens to self-help in territory that should ordinarily model rural development in Nigeria.”

The FCT administration was also accused of allocating lands in green areas “in clear breach of the FCT Master Plan”.

Okechukwu added;

“Concerned about the worsening poor waste management practice in the FCT, including dearth and poor maintenance of waste treatment plants, despite Minister of State, FCT’s claim of N8 billion annual expenditure on waste management in the FCT.

“Also worried about the far-reaching consequences of the absence of a full complement of the FCTA’s administrative structures for about two years since the appointment of the FCT minister, including the non-appointment of mandate secretaries, equivalents of commissioners at state level, to form the FCT executive council.”

The motion was adopted and put to a voice vote by Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila.

Bello served as a Member of the Technical Committee on Privatization (TPC). He was also a Member of the Adamawa State Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture. In 2006, President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria where he served from 2007 to 2015.

In May 2015, he was appointed Minister of Federal Capital Territory by President Muhammadu Buhari.