Abuja natives decry omission from ministerial list

Natives of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja have decried the non-inclusion of their representatives as ministerial nominees, saying despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise that he belongs to no one but everybody, natives of the FCT have been relegated in the list forwarded to the Senate.

A statement issued by the President, Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja (OIDA), Pastor Danladi Jeji, the inhabitants decried the continuous marginalization of FCT natives in key government positions within the Federal Government which doubles as their own state government as reflected in Section 299 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The natives are asking President Buhari to “appoint competent natives of Abuja as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and political aides so that the government will not have a crisis of confidence between it and Abuja original inhabitants.”

The pan-FCT group are also asking President Buhari to “relinquish his powers as Governor of FCT and the National Assembly to also relinquish its powers as the House of Assembly for the FCT to the original inhabitants and residents of the Territory so that they can freely elect those to govern them directly rather than the indirect rule presently obtainable in the FCT.”

OIDA also called for a “total audit of land allocations by the Abuja Geographic and Information System, AGIS to ascertain those behind massive fraud allocation of lands through programs like mass housing, Landswap and Centenary city projects.”

According to OIDA, As Nigerians await the remaining list from President Buhari, the FCT natives are hopeful that they will have a representative in the federal cabinet even as they pledged their continuous support to the new federal government.

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