Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has warned officials of the Administration against sabotaging rural road projects in the Area Councils.
Wike, who gave the warning at the flag-off of 7.2km Gaba-Tokulo-Kaima Road in Bwari Area Council on Friday, told residents of the area that all abandoned Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) projects as identified by chairman of the Area Council will be restarted.
The minister said his administration will not tolerate delay of files by officials due to bureaucratic bottlenecks, saying that he would not be involved in awarding of contracts without money, which he described as the greatest ‘419’.
“I am not going to be involved in award of any contract when we do not have money. That is why as I came on board, I tried to discourage directors to stop this idea of putting projects when there is no money, it does not make sense,” he said.
He also called on the traditional rulers and other residents to cooperate with the contractor to execute the project, saying that the greatest fraud done to community people is flagging off a project and the next one month contractors will not be seen again.
“That is the highest 419. We will not be involved in that. If I start a project, it must be completed. I am not going to do a project that will last more than one year. I will not be a party to that.
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“A project that will cost you N6billion, then you go and put in the budget N300,000,000, are you willing to complete that project then? Certainly not. So, we are going to change the narrative. We are going to change the way people used to do things before. We are going to do something that will have direct impact on the people.
“Tinubu asked me to tell Bwari Area Council people that all what they requested should be given to them. Therefore, all your requests on the abandoned projects which was initially to be carried out by FCDA, I can assure you that by the directive of the president, go home and sleep with your two eyes closed, those projects must be restarted.
“Part of insecurity is as a result of lack of basic infrastructure, people do not have access to road make things difficult for even security agencies to carry out their jobs very well. Each day you hear that there is crisis in the neighbouring communities, how can the police and other security agencies go there when there is no good road?,” he stated.