The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, has rejected the request by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) that its revoked plot of land be reversed.
Wike told the Acting Comptroller-General of the NCS, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, who paid him a courtesy call in Abuja, yesterday, that the NCS could only be given an opportunity to buy back the plot at its current price.
While Adeniyi also sought a plot of land on which to build primary and secondary schools for the children of the more than 2,000 Customs officers residing in the FCT, Wike said: “When we gave you the land, you refused to use it. FCT will now sell it to you, and when we give you Certificate of Ownership, you pay our ground rent.
“I will give you the opportunity to buy the land from the FCT and give you the value of the land now.”
He said the FCTA would support the Service to achieve its aims and objectives, but lamented how government agencies were allocated land in FCT and refused to develop them.
On the land for schools, the minister assured the Customs boss that the land for schools would be considered on the condition that the agency would develop it within a specific period.
In another development, the Federal Government, yesterday, formally took over the 12,000 hectares of land from the Jiwa Community at Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) for the construction of a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
This follows the payment of N825.8 million as compensation to the people of the community to enable the contractors to move to site for the construction of the 4.2km runway.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, who disclosed this at the official handing over of the site to the Federal Government, as well as the contractor, China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), commended the people of the community.
He noted that the country had been looking forward to the construction of the second runway for the past two decades since the administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo but never put it into reality.