FOLLOWING increasing incidents of insecurity, especially last week’s invasion of the University of Abuja Senior Staff Quarters by unknown gunmen, suspected to be bandits, when two professors and four others were abducted, the House of Representatives on Tuesday summoned the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Mohammed Bello, to appear before the Committee of the Whole to address it on the matter.
The resolution followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, on Tuesday. Citing order 8, rule 4 of the House, Hon. Okechukwu called for an urgent need to arrest the worsening insecurity in Nigeria.
Saying that the FCT has never been unsafe as it currently is, Hon. Okechukwu noted that the insecurity is due to “influx of bandits and other criminals, lack of modern security infrastructure in the city centre and the satellite towns, and non-maintenance of available ones, including CCTV installations and as little as streetlights.”
Hon. Okechukwu questioned the city management capacity of the FCT under the leadership of the FCT Minister as he also criticised the indiscriminate allocation of land without corresponding increment in infrastructure. He also questioned the waste management process of the city under the current FCT administration.
“The House is worried 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,” Okechukwu said.
Speaking on the motion, Hon. Nicholas Ossai (PDP, Delta), said the House Committee on FCT already created four sub-committees to investigate the matter. He noted that the committee should be allowed to finish the investigation and report back to the House.
While ruling on the matter, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House, said the House Committee on FCT and the Committee of the Whole can work side by side.
