Wike Reiterates Pledge To Complete Projects In May

By: Wisdom Acka

FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has reiterated his pledge to complete certain critical projects in Abuja before 29th May.

Abuja Digest recalls that the Minister had earlier promised his Administration would deliver key projects for President Bola Tinubu to commission as part of celebration for the President’s one year in office which is 29th May.

Wike restated the pledge when he took a tour of some of the projects on Thursday.

“It is part of our routine inspection of on-going projects, particularly those projects we have promised the public that, God willing, by May this year, these projects would have been completed,” he said.

“And so, what we have done today is to look round and see whether the contractors are meeting up with expectation,” the Minister added.

“We are happy with what we saw at Guzape Lot II, which is going on quite very fast, and the contractor is doing what they can to meet up with the deadline, and we believe they are going to accomplish it,” he stressed.

Wike, however, revealed that there was a setback, regarding a member, House of Representatives, trying to stop the contractor from working.

He, therefore, warned: “We are not going to take it lightly. This is not a private project, it is a public project, handled by the Federal Capital Territory Administration.”

“If there is any complaint, we think that whoever is responsible should complain to us and not to go and use Police to stop a legitimate company constructing work for the use of the public, which was approved by the Federal Executive Council,” the Ministry emphasized.

“We have directed the contractor to go back and make sure they don’t heed to that so called stoppage. They must go back and complete the work, which we are expecting that Mr. President will commission in May,” Wike restated.

The Minister, who also expressed satisfaction with the pace and quality of on-going work at the end of the Independence and Constitution Avenues (B6 & B12), warned against infractions by the Central Bank of Nigeria; saying, the FCTA would not allow.

He stressed: “One thing with institutions is that when they apply for land, and they are given, they will go beyond what was given to them, and it causes obstruction.”

“I’ve always said that anything for the public, we will not take it for granted. So, we want the Central Bank to allow us use what belongs to us for the interest of the public,” he said.

“By and large, we are very happy with what we are seeing and you can attest to the fact that since Mr. President came on board, no work has stopped on all these sites. There are so many other sites, but it will be difficult to take all at the same time. But we believe after May, before December, so many projects will be handed over to members of the public,” he assured.

The Minister urged the Senator, representing the FCT in the Senate, Sen. Ireti Kingibe to continue representing the interest of the FCT at the National Assembly; adding that he was determined to taking everyone along in FCTA programmes and projects.