By Kabir Muhammad
Abuja – The Federal Capital Territory Administration said that it was working towards addressing the infrastructural challenges in Piwoyi area of the FCT.
The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello made this known when the management of National Defence College (NDC) led by the college Commandant, Rear Admiral Adeniyi Osinowo visited his office in Abuja on Friday.
He pointed out that plans were on to open up the area through the relevant arterial roads that were in the Abuja Master Plan.
“As you can see the legislative college is almost done. If you notice, you will see that the Korean Model School also is almost done.
“A lot of developments are going on around the area,” he said.
The minister frowned at the rapid expansion of illegal settlements around the area, adding that steps were been taken to discourage the negative trend.
“The villages that you see springing up there are all illegal and if we all agree that they are illegal, then it’s better for us so that we treat them as such.
Normally, it’s the construction and the activity in your permanent site and all the other major institutions that are coming up there that are attracting these people.
“If we all keep quiet and we don’t do anything, they will continue to grow.
“ But they are really not supposed to be there and they are usually people that work in your site or work for some of the other construction sites there,” he said.
Bello while assuring that the water problem being experienced at the Ushafa camp of the College was being addressed.
He added that the technical team of the FCT Water Board was identifying how it can lay another water pipe from the tank in Bwari town to Ushafa.
He commended the management of the College for working assiduously towards completing the permanent site of the college at Piwoyi, Abuja.
Bello said the FCTA would do everything necessary to assist the management to hasten the movement of the college as soon as possible to a more comfortable location.
He said that a number of national and multilateral agencies are waiting to take over their existing location.
Bello advised government institutions and private organisations seeking land for mass housing in the FCT to take advantage of the empty estates and negotiate with finance houses for a suitable long term financing agreement.
He said it would be futile for these organisations to continue to apply and wait for land for mass housing in the already developed phases of the territory, where land allocations had been fully exhausted.
Bello said that the template of everybody getting land and starting a cooperative housing estate was no longer feasible in the FCT.
He said interested parties should identify reasonably priced houses and go into agreement with a financial institution to work out a long term financing model that should be able to meet up with their requirements.
According to him, land is no longer available in phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, and even in some parts of phase 4 of Abuja. We are now planning phase five.
“But then we sat down and reflected and we said if we keep on opening phases without providing infrastructure, at the end of the day, we will just have pockets of slums all over the city.
“That’s why as an administration, we are not keen on giving land because we are not sure of when infrastructure is going to be there,” he said.
Bello, however, disclosed that the Administration was reviewing land allocations it made to government institutions and other developers in the territory for mass housing purposes.
He noted that it might be forced to revoke some of these plots and reallocate them to more serious contenders in the areas where no appreciable development had been.
Earlier, the NDC Commandant, Osinowo said the team was on a familiarity visit to the minister to explain what they had been doing and also raised issues for the attention of the FCT Minister.
“As our landlord, we have continued to enjoy your support and we are very grateful, particularly the relationship between the Administration and the College.
“The College has continued to grow in strength and in terms of the scope of our activities.
“We have benefitted from all the good things the territory has offered us, particularly the physical properties we have.
“The permanent site is somewhere in Piwoyi and we hope in the coming years, we will relocate there fully,” he said.(NAN)