Senate President, House of Reps Speaker and their deputies rejects N3billion official houses; ...buildings to be converted to guest house!

Four presiding officers of the National Assembly have rejected official houses being built for them by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).

Senate President David Mark, House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha have cited insecurity and delay in the provision of infrastructure as the reasons for their action.

FCT Minister Bala Mohammed, who gave the hint at the weekend, disclosed that the authorities had consequently discontinued the construction of the N3 billion official houses by the construction giant, Julius Berger, at the Maitama Extension (renamed Goodlock Jonathan District) located behind the Lungi Military Barracks in the city centre.

The FCTA last year proposed to spend N1.5 billion on construction of the new official houses for the National Assembly’s presiding officers as well as another N1 billion for completion of the official residence of the vice president.

During the 2012 budget defence session before the House of Representatives Committee on FCT, Mohammed said the total cost of the project was N3.044 billion.

He said while N324 million was appropriated in 2011 for the new residences, only N146 million had been expended, leaving a balance of N178 million. He explained that for 2012, N1.5 billion would be required for the project.

Citing insecurity at their Apo Legislative Quarters in Abuja, the minister in February 2011 told the parliament during a budget defence that four principal officers of the National Assembly would benefit from a new set of residential accommodation being planned by the FCTA at the Maitama Extension Area in Abuja.

His word: “The National Assembly is the highest democratic body we have apart from the Presidency. And the National Assembly complex at Apo has been sold out to the public. The place is being inhabited by all sorts of people. Leaving them there will expose them to the vagaries of the society. And anybody can be a principal officer; so whoever is there and you leave him there, you are not being fair to him.”

But fielding questions last weekend on the progress made so far on the project, the minister, represented by the FCDA Director of Public Building, Bernard Lot, said work had already begun on the project before the recent rejection of the area by the principal officers.

“You will recall that we had started that project, and there is a contractor carrying out the road work. You can actually access the place because the contractor has actually commenced work and has also done reasonably well on that.

“But that too was affected by budgetary provisions. You know government has dwindling resources, but there is an issue there because development is not taking place fast in that area. And so the principal officers of the National Assembly have said that they don’t want that place because of the current security situation in the country.

“Though it is behind the army barracks, we cannot isolate them there, and government in its own wisdom has said that since they don’t want it, the authorities have decided to convert the buildings to guest houses and scale down the initial cost of the project. That is what we are doing now. We are scaling down the cost of the project to serve as guest houses to the principal officers of the National Assembly.

“As for their new residences, you are all aware that we have already cleared a new site located in the Three Arms Zone in the Central Area. The President has already given his anticipatory approval and the contractor has been asked to commence work on the project,” he said.

3 BILLION NAIRA wasted on 'official' residence for just 4 people?! And Nigerian students languishes at home for the past 3 months over governments' unwillingness to re-equip and revamp our universities?!

We all need to come together as one in this country, put aside our religious, cultural and tribal differences, collectively call our leaders to order and put a stop to this cancerous disease called CORRUPTION eating us alive!