The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has asked the Senate to approve a security vote for his territory to enable him to tackle the security challenges in the nation’s capital.
He made the request when he appeared before the Senate Committees on FCT and Area Councils on Monday to defend the N1.1 trillion budget of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for the 2024 fiscal year.
The FCT recently witnessed increased cases of kidnappings, armed robbery and killings of innocent residents.
Wike said approving the security vote for the FCTA was necessary to ensure that security agencies eliminate threats without going through the rigours of official bureaucracy capable of delaying action and revealing sensitive security information.
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He said, “If you recollect what we said in the Security Council meeting, I did say that in tackling the issue of insecurity, there are certain operations that we call covert operations and that even some people may not even know. But here in Abuja or FCT, no security man can be given N10,000.
“He has to apply. You have to take it to the permanent secretary, who will take it to the DFA (Director of Finance and Accounts) before the money will be released. Now, in that case, you don’t even know whether it is the permanent secretary or the DFA that is giving out information regarding the operation.
“There is no security vote in the FCT and so, I did present this when we discussed security issues. This is just to let you know, so you don’t forget that you did promise us that you would make sure that this time around, there would be a security vote to take care of some of these challenges.”
The minister also spoke about how he was able to save the sum of $ 53 million by renegotiating the operations aspect of the Abuja light rail contract from $128 million to $75 million.
Speaking on the delay or non-completion of public projects, Wike explained that most government contracts were “inflated.”
He said he opted to use Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to partly fund some projects while awaiting the release of main capital budgets to scuttle “plots” by contractors and their collaborators in the system to seek variation at the slightest opportunity.
