The Association of Plot Owners Maitama Extension, Abuja (APOMEX) has commended FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s efforts in uplifting Abuja as a befitting capital city that can rank equal among the best in the world.
They said two months after his assumption as FCT minister, Mr Wike had left nobody in doubt that he was actually out to make Abuja a capital city that every Nigerian would be proud of.
The APOMEX revealed this in a statement signed by its management and released in Abuja at the weekend.
The statement said, “It is gratifying to celebrate the FCT Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike, for identifying, listing and inaugurating the rehabilitation and resurfacing of 135 roads in Wuse, Garki, Gwarinpa and Maitama Districts. This is an unprecedented feat that every Abuja resident must be proud of. Your trademark in the last two months is a confirmation for your nickname as Mr Project.”
They said the minister had hit the ground running immediately after he resumed office, “by ensuring that all contractors handling projects in the Federal Capital Territory have gone back to sites.”
“We are glad that Mr Wike is tackling the issues of abandoned plots and buildings headlong without fear or favour. The minister has revoked the lands that were abandoned and issued an ultimatum to owners of uncompleted properties. This will go a long way in addressing insecurity ravaging the capital city,” the statement said.
The APOMEX also appealed to the minister to intervene in their own case, by stopping the encroachment by the Nigerian military into their legally- acquired plots.
They said the military authorities in Abuja have been defying a valid court granted on March 27, 2023, by Justice U. P. Kekemeke of the FCT High Court, Abuja restraining them (military) from encroaching on the land until the determination of the substantive case.
Justice Kekemeke had restrained the President, Ministry of Defence, Minister of Defence, and Minister of Justice from encroaching on the plots until the determination of the suit marked FCT/HC/CV/318/2022.
The landowners had approached the court on December 16, 2022, asking the court to order the defendants and their agents from “committing further acts of trespass, forcibly developing, acquiring, taking over, meddling in or with, transferring, disposing off, speculating in respect of the properties of the claimants/applicants…”
Justice Kekemeke granted the restraining order after hearing the defendants’ affidavit in support of the motion paper attached with 13 exhibits and written arguments by the counsel to the applicants.
However, despite the subsisting court order, the defendants – particularly the military – has refused to comply by encroaching into the plots of land, destroying property worth billions of naira, the association lamented.
They urged Minister Wike to intervene, saying “we are in excruciating pain because the military are still encroaching on our lands, causing damages worth billions of naira.”
They said, “We are law-abiding Nigerians who invested our hard-earned savings on these lands. But unfortunately, the institutions who are supposed to uphold law and order are the same ones defying the court order in the most despicable way.”
The association appealed to Mr Wike to protect them and their property from the bulldozers of the military in line with the minister’s policy statement of doing the right thing in Abuja notwithstanding whose ox is gored.
