Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Nyesom Wike, has asked settlers on the Abuja Science and Technology Village in Chika-Aleita along the airport road to immediately vacate the area or face demolition.
The minister gave the order on Monday during an inspection tour of the village, alongside his counterpart in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Godfrey Nnaji.
He consequently directed the Department of Development Control to see the removal of the settlers, saying from the records available to him, compensations had been paid to the earlier settlers in the place.
He said; “I am not impressed with what I am seeing. We don’t lack the political will, as we do have it. If you don’t take action, people will not believe that anything is possible. As I go back now, I will call the Development Control Department and give them ultimatum for these people to leave. They have been compensated since 2015, but if that was the case, I don’t know why we couldn’t fence the area up till now.
“When this fencing takes place, you will see that they wouldn’t have choice, but to leave.
“I have invited the Minister of Science and Technology, so that he could take active possession of the place and see how investors can come in.
“I was thinking that a lot of activities are going on here, not knowing that it is empty land. The roads have been provided, and that ought to interest investors, but it depends on what you people have been doing since. We must quickly see what we can do.
“I urge those who settled here illegally to know that we will not hesitate to move them out. No amount of campaign will stop us from doing the right thing.
You are in charge of this place, and you don’t even have an office here, at least to show presence and tell people that we are here. So, if an investor is coming now, he is coming to meet an empty land, and you are renting an office outside the village.
“Please, let us know what it will take to erect a befitting office, so you can leave that place that you said that you are renting. If you calculate the amount of money you spend renting, it is a waste, as you could use that money to start doing something good”, he added.
On his part, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji said the visit was to look at what is left of the technology village.
“We have a vision of this technology village, it is a vision of what is like London Technology City, with an asset base of six billion pounds, in less than six years of operation, which is what we intend to do in this place, and a replica of Silicon valley in the USA.
“So the infrastructure and technology that this place is going to house in a couple of years would be humongous.
“We are not impressed with what is happening here. There was a company in America that came about a month ago, and wanted to put in 200 Mega watts of power here. There are so many other companies that want to start right away, but as this encroachment continues, we have to stop it somewhere, and see how we can take over, either compensate the owners or demolish them. This is because, it is bigger than what we have here”.
The Abuja technology village was created by Federal Government shortly after the return of democracy in 1999. It is a Free Trade Zone, expected to incubate science and technology.
In another development, the minister said Abuja possesses significant tourism potential that could be explored by Qatar.
Speaking during a meeting with Ali bin Ghanem Al-Hajri, the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Nigeria, Wike expressed the FCT administration’s willingness to provide land for the development of tourism centers in Abuja.
He said; “We want to fully complete the millennium centre which is the main tourist centre in the nation’s capital.
“We are doing our part to change the narrative in Abuja, we are ready to collaborate in terms of security. We will make it convenient for all those that resident in Abuja”.
On his part, Ambassador Ali bin Ghanem Al-Hajri expressed Qatar’s readiness to collaborate in the medical and education sectors.
Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria