Umahi, Dangiwa , Kyari Justify Supplementary Budget as Wike Vows to Demolish Abandoned Buildings in FCT

By Adekunle Adesuji, Abuja

The Minister of Works, David Umahi; Minister of Housing, Ahmed Dangiwa and Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari alongside Service Chiefs yesterday appeared before the Senate Committee on Appropriations to justify N2.1 trillion 2023 supplementary budget.

Also, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nyesom Wike vowed before the committee to pull down all abandoned building in Abuja, lamenting that the abandoned buildings “are now hideouts for criminals within the nation’s capital.”

The ministers justified the supplementary budget yesterday before the Senate Committee on Appropriations under the chairmanship of Senator Adeola Olamilekan representing Ogun West.

Speaking before the committee yesterday, Dangiwa defended N100 billion budgeted for the Federal Ministry of Housing in the Supplementary budget, saying the budget “will be spent on the construction of Housing Estates across the country.”

He explained that the federal government would construct 1,000 housing estates in each state of the federation, adding that all state governors had been contacted to provided 50 heaters of land for the construction of the estates

He said another 2,000 Housing Estates “will be built in the urban areas in each geo-political zones. We will use N50 billion to kickstart the construction of the housing estates in the federation. The remaining N50 billion will be used to develop slums in different parts of the country.”

In his own presentation, Wike defended N100 billion provided in the supplementary budget for the Federal Capital Territory. Out of the N100 billion, the minister noted that N22 billion was earmarked for completion of metro rail.

Speaking on insecurity, Wike noted that since he assumed office three months ago, there had been improvement in the security situation.

He said: “We will bring down all abandoned buildings with the FCT. We will also take over all those buildings because we have discovered that they are hideouts for criminals.

“When people commit crime, they will come and hide inside them. I have confidence that things would turn around,” Wike explained.

He, however, said security situation would continue improve day by day, pointing out that the issue of one chance would be the thing of the past when the metro buses begin operation