FCT minister suspends land allocation indefinitely

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Musa Bello, has said new plots of land will not be allocated either now or in the near future by the current administration at the (FCTA) until infrastructure was further provided in many of the districts of the territory.

Bello, who made the disclosure on Wednesday, said parcels of land that were in compensation for wrongs done or part of amicable resolutions to disputes, were exempted from the new order.

He, however, said it was a “deliberate policy by the current FCT Administration.”

Bello spoke when he received a delegation of the Catholic community in Abuja, led by the Archbishop of Abuja Archdiocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, paid him a visit in his office at Area 11, Garki I District.

The minister stated that the new policy was “not to allocate new plots of land either now or in the near future until such areas or districts are clearly provided with the best complements of infrastructure.”

He said the policy was not aimed at stifling development but to ensure that development went the way it should be, by providing for the best possible infrastructure before allocations were made.

Bello called on religious bodies and other residents of the territory to embrace out-of-court settlement for land-related disputes, in order to reduce the time expended in seeking resolutions at the courts, which he said, retarded development of the territory.

He pledged that the FCT Administration would be fair and just in allocating plots earmarked for religious worship centres in the Abuja Master Plan.

“Despite the huge demands for land in the FCT, the administration will try as much as possible to ensure that plots meant for religious organisations are left for that purpose so that everybody is given a sense of belonging in the Territory.

“The planners of Abuja have made plots available for religious bodies in all of the districts in the Federal Capital City and the current FCT Administration intends to implement its land allocation policy based on this plan

“I think this is standard practice. For every district, there are religious plots that cater for all the faiths.

“Ordinarily, fairness should be adopted in this kind of issues. You may find some people complaining over the years, if there has not been fairness,” he said.

Bayelsa declares N889m deficit balance for June

Bayelsa State government has declared a deficit of N889 million for the month of June, 2016 out of a net inflow of N4.4 billion from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).

Presenting the income and expenditure profile for the state in his office in the Government House, Yenagoa, the Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah (retd), said Bayelsa received the sum of N6.8 billion as gross inflow for the month.

The amount, according to him, included statutory allocation of N1.3 billion, derivation N3 billion, Value Added Tax N575, exchange differential of N62 million, ESCROW Account N230 million, refund from Rivers State N57 million, while budget support, which is a Federal Government loan to states stood at N1.4 billion.

On FAAC deductions totaling N2.3 billion, the deputy governor noted that the bond deduction gulped N1.2 billion, foreign loans N21 million, commercial agricultural loan schemes, 1 while 11 came up to N102 million, restructured loan facility N741 million, salary bailout N16 million and Excess Crude Account loan facility N126 million.

Jonah said there was an improvement in the Internally Generated Revenue for May, which he said, is N719 million, a difference of about N202 million, as the state recorded an IGR of N517 million from the previous month.

He also announced a total outflow of N2.9 billion, comprising bank