Original inhabitants of Abuja are to be relocated to their permanent site in 2015, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Smart Adeyemi, has said.
Adeyemi stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that already, districts were being created to ensure the implementation of the relocation next year, adding that the exercise would relieved many of the original inhabitants of some of their problems.
Adeyemi said efforts were being made to ensure a robust budget allocation for the FCT in 2015.
He said: “In next year’s budget, effort will be made to look at the possibility of providing a good percentage of the revenue allocation for natives to move to their permanent sites.
“Compensation is a serious problem due to the dwindling national revenue.
“The oil price has not really been too stable.
“And the government is facing so many challenges.
“So, the allocation to Federal capital Territory has not been quite encouraging.
“That explains why we are coming with a revenue board to look at the possibility of improving the internally generated revenue of the FCT so that they can meet some of these problems.
“By and large, the problem of compensation is the issue of money.
“The FCT is ever expanding, the roads are getting congested.
“There is need to expand and construct more roads and all these, of course, affect other sectors.
“But I must equally emphasise that the government has done appreciably well in terms of the needs of the indigenous people.”
The lawmaker accused the original inhabitants of selling the estates built for them by the Federal Government.
Adeyemi said: “I must equally say that some of the estates that have been completed have been sold by the natives to other Nigerians, making the problem of movement a bit difficult.
“The Garki village, the indigenous people there ought to have moved but the painful thing there is the new site provided by government, the houses there have been completed.
“About 90 per cent of the houses had been completed and sold to other Nigerians by the natives and if you move them, they have no place to lay their heads.”
Adeyemi explained that the present administration inherited the problems of the original inhabitants from previous military regimes that failed to pay the required compensation to the affected Nigerians.
Adeyemi also said owners of unoccupied houses in the Federal Capital Territory would be made to dispose of such property as from 2015.
Adeyemi said property owners would be forced to pay tax on a regular basis on their property if they refused to let them out.
He said: “The Revenue Bill that we have passed is a double edged bill.
“The bill is supposed to improve the internally generated revenue of the FCT on one hand, making sure there are enough resources for the FCT to meet the challenges of the ever increasing population of FCT.
“But I think more importantly is the aspect of property tax, where people have built houses and they refused to give them out because the would-be tenant cannot just afford what they are being asked to pay.
“So when we come in with the property tax, it will be compelling for landlords to look for tenants because if you don’t, you keep on paying the taxes.
“So that is the essence of the property tax.
“That you have a property and you have refused to let it out, you will be paying the property tax.
“So when you pay for some years, you will definitely beg tenants to come and take over the property.”
Adeyemi, who said it would not be business as usual for property owners in the FCT, said that it was appalling to have property lying unoccupied and nobody was asking questions.
He said: “It is only in Nigeria you have so many houses built and no occupant and the landlords are not bothered.
“The owners are not talking because a good percentage of them are from stolen money.
“There is nowhere in the world where people build and you don’t have tenants and you are not bothered.
“If it is a mortgage, you know what that implies, but in Nigeria people just build with stolen money and nobody asking how they came about it.
“I know of some property, for the past five years, nobody is living in them and the owners don’t bother because they have not taken facility from any bank.”
The lawmaker said besides the commencement of property tax in January 2015, there would be adequate funds coming to FCT to meet the needs of the people.