Politics

MINISTER of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, says the FCT Administration will provide the needed infrastructure before allocating land to anyone for development.

Wike stated this when the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, visited him in Abuja on Thursday.

He said that his predecessor had made some allocations, adding, however, that some of the areas had no infrastructure or access roads to the lands.

“For me, it is baseless to allocate land to people when they cannot have access to them. For the development of the land, we want to make sure you have access to them,” he said.

The minister said that President Bola Tinubu had given him the go-ahead to allocate land to the executive, the legislative and the judicial arms of government.

He, however, said that what was delaying the allocations was developing the strategy on how it would be done, considering the huge number of expected beneficiaries across the three arms of government.

“So, what we are trying to do is to do it in phases, because all cannot be done at the same time,” he said.

Wike stressed the need for the three arms of government to work together, while maintaining their respective independence.

While acknowledging the importance of the judiciary to the survival of the nation’s democracy, he stated that whatever it required to strengthen is could not amount to over-demanding.

Earlier, Tsoho appealed for allocation of landed properties to all the serving Federal High Court judges.

“The peculiarity of our job, due to frequent transfers, takes us everywhere without being recognised in any of these states or even our states of origin.

“This is because we are not likely to be posted to our states of origin.

“Consequently, we are denied various forms of policies as judges and justices, serving and retired, since we are not part of the judiciaries of such states.

“Failure to cater for our interests at the federal level makes us seemingly orphans and stateless.

“We believe, however, that service nationwide translates into being truly federal citizens who should be recognised and given a stake in the Federal Capital Territory.

“I kindly urge Your Excellency to use your good offices in allocating landed properties to all serving federal high court judges,” the chief judge said. (NAN)

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November 2, 2023 @ 19:45 GMT|

Tags: Nyesom Wike