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Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mallam Mohammed Bello, yesterday said that his administration will continue to demolish illegal structures to save lives.
The Minister stated this when he was featured at the ministerial briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
While answering questions on the demolition of illegal structures said though it was not his priority, it has become inevitable to save lives.
He said, “Certain demolitions are just almost inevitable. For instance, you have to demolish illegal buildings along waterways because when a flash flood comes the enormous power of running water during a flash flood is something that most people don’t know.
“So what we’ve done is we need to save lives. And that’s why we continue to demolish and we have to construct a road made for hundreds of thousands. And somebody decides, without seeking appropriate approval, to go and build in the middle of the road. So are you going to make a detour in respect of one person to the detriment of hundreds of thousands or are you going just move it away?
“We try to encourage people to follow the rules and regulations because it’s all there. And then of course, if you go on the wrong side of the law we move on because as public officials we are empowered and we have a duty a moral obligation to do what is right for the largest number of people and that’s what has always guided me as a public officer.
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“You don’t look at individuals, you don’t look at class, you don’t look at the group. No, you do what is going to be beneficial to the largest number of people and that’s what we’ve been doing.
Meanwhile, the Minister said that individuals who go to request bail for apprehended criminals to unleash them back on society should be arrested.
Mallam Bello suggested reports that criminals arrested and facing prosecution are being released through the intervention of prominent citizens in the territory.
The Minister appealed to residents to expose those involved in freeing such urchins by reporting them to authorities.
He affirmed that the criminal justice system in the territory has challenges as its three correctional facilities are now filled to capacities and unable to take in more convicts.
According to him, criminals convicted in Abuja courts are now being sent to Suleja in Niger State even as the territory is proposing what he called a “bolster center” to accommodate underage convicts.
He told residents of Abuja to own the city and report to security agencies any criminal activities around their vicinity.
The minister also said that he had demystified the office of the minister by devolving real powers to agencies which empowers them to carry out their responsibilities without undue interference.
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He blamed the need for the demolition of structures in the territory on the failure of past ministers to properly carry out their responsibilities.
According to him, if agencies had been able to do their jobs, the structures earmarked for demolition would not have sprung up in the first place.
On what the FCT makes from the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, he said, “Well, when I came for this briefing, I was given borders within that it was just infrastructure, but we’ve done tremendously well in IGR.
“We are now rated as the second sub-national after Lagos in terms of IGR and all these happened because of the goodwill of the people in all the departments. But we have a young man now that handles our FCT Internal Revenue Service Mr. Abdullah, he’s been doing a very good job.
“When it comes to exact figures, I probably will not want to commit myself but I can tell you our IGR now is over N200 billion.”
He said that the sum of N1 billion (N500 million each) has been set aside to renovate the National Mosque and National Christian Center, to make them presentable tourist sites for visitors to the city of Abuja.
