APGA chieftain advocates tax on empty houses in FCT

An All Progressives Grand Alliance chieftain, Kwanashie Yahuza-Ozotu, has advocated the introduction of tax on empty estates and houses in the Federal Capital Territory.
Yahuza-Ozotu, who made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja, also called for the reduction of rents paid be tenants in the capital city.
He said that it was quite high to pay rent in the FCT, and that some landlords even asked for two years advance payment.
He said: “As a matter of fact, how much is your salary as a civil servant or a business person that you will be paying that high for rent?
“It is actually not feasible; what is obtainable globally is that there are laws that guide and govern how many years you can rent a house, and at how much you can rent it.
“In Nigeria, we have no such laws; so, we need to be able to propose, sponsor and pass Bills that would ban landlords from renting houses at high cost.
“That way, we can control the agencies that rent out these houses to effect the price of houses.”
Yahuza-Ozotu, who is aspiring to represent Abuja Municipal and Bwari Constituency in the House of Representatives in 2019, said that the average elite always sunk their money in the building of houses.
He said that they would just build houses and lock them up without renting them out.
He said: “I am looking at how to introduce a tax regime for houses that are not rented; it is all about demand and supply and if there are more houses in the market, the prices will go down.”
Yahuza-Ozotu said that he would bridge the gap between leaders and the citizenry in the FCT as most of them rarely cared for the people.
He said that he would also solve the problem plaguing the FCT in terms of transportation, accommodation and healthcare by proposing bills that would affect FCT citizens positively.
He also said that there was need for a law that would bring mayoral status for FCT to allow indigenes rule the territory.
The aspirant, who has collected his nomination form for the contest, expressed confidence that the 9th Assembly would be a promising one, saying “this is because I see a lot of young minds there’’.