The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: Fct

  • 2027: Wike Vows To Resign If Tinubu Loses FCT, Rivers

    2027: Wike Vows To Resign If Tinubu Loses FCT, Rivers

    Precious Nwonu, Enugu

    Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has vowed to resign from office if President Bola Tinubu loses the Federal Capital Territory and Rivers State in the 2027 presidential election.

    Wike made the declaration on Wednesday in Abuja during a meeting with members of the Apo Mechanics and Traders Association, where he reaffirmed his support for Tinubu’s re-election bid.

    The minister said the presidential election is scheduled for January 16, 2027, and pledged to announce his resignation the following day if Tinubu fails to secure victory in both the FCT and Rivers.

    “The presidential election is on January 16, 2027. By January 17, 2027, I will announce my resignation as FCT Minister should the President lose in Rivers State and the FCT,” Wike said.

    Wike, a former governor of Rivers State, said the FCT was particularly important to him because it was where he currently served, while Rivers remained his home state.

    He said failure to deliver electoral support for Tinubu in the two areas would raise questions about his continued suitability as FCT minister.

    “FCT is where I work. Rivers is my state. If I cannot deliver where I work, then I’m not worthy to be here,” he said.

    Wike also disclosed that a multi-party political coalition was being mobilised in the FCT ahead of the 2027 elections.

    He said the coalition, which he referred to as the “Rainbow Coalition,” included members of different political parties who were backing Tinubu for the presidency.

    The minister also endorsed candidates for legislative positions in the FCT and urged his supporters to work towards securing electoral victories for the candidates backed by the coalition.

    Wike’s declaration comes as political parties and their supporters intensify preparations for the 2027 general elections, with the presidential poll scheduled for January 16, according to his remarks and reports of the event.

    The minister also addressed the planned relocation of mechanics and traders operating around Apo, assuring them that arrangements were being made to move them to the Wasa informal sector by the end of the year.

    He said physical enumeration of affected traders and mechanics was being conducted as part of preparations for the relocation.

    Wike’s proposed resignation would take effect only if Tinubu fails to win both the FCT and Rivers State, based on the condition he publicly set at the Abuja meeting.

  • SERDEC demands justice, empowerment for FCT indigenes

     

    A civil society organisation, the Socio-Economic Research and Development Centre, SERDEC, Tuesday, called on the federal government, agencies and international bodies to put an end to what it called the marginalization and economic injustice being perpetrated against the Original Inhabitants, OIs, in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

    The group made the call at the launch of the project, “Promoting the rights of the Original Inhabitants in the Federal Capital Territory,” in Abuja.

    The project, supported by the MacArthur Foundation through the Resource Centre for Human Rights Education, CHRICED, has a two-year timeline under the Equitable Recovery Grant to work for ethnic injustice as it concerns the marginalized indigenes of the FCT.

    Addressing newsmen at the event, Executive Director, SERDEC, Mr Tijani Abdulkareem, said the project “will enhance equitable access to employment and empowerment programme information to all sections of OIs unemployed young women and men in order to support their enrolment into government programmes.”

    At the end of the project cycle in 2023, Abdulkareem said a good number of unemployed youths and women spread across the six Area Councils of the FCT “will benefit from the equitable process of empowerment and employment programmes that are being implemented by government agencies.

    He bemoaned the “statelessness” of the FCT saying as a result, “the original inhabitant communities find themselves building feelings of alienation, frustration and bitterness arising from inequitable access to state opportunities.”

    Also speaking, the Alkali of Rubochi community, Alhaji Yakubu Kure lamented what he called the lack of job opportunities for indigenes of FCT despite the fact that unlike in the past, they now boast of hundreds of thousands of graduates in various fields.

    He dismissed the notion that OIs prefer to sell their lands to non-indigenes for-profit purposes.

    According to him, “We have been deprived of our lands in the past but as peaceful people; we often relocate because we are not enemies of progress. We are traditionally farmers.

    “Government should come to our aid by providing job opportunities for our children. That way, some of the agitations you see today will die naturally,” he added.

    On his part, Dr. Mahmud Jibril, board chairman of SERDEC said the Gbagyi communities in Nigeria deserve a state of their own, lamenting that though they are present in large numbers in FCT, Plateau, Niger, Kaduna, Kogi and Nasarawa states, they are being treated as minorities in the allocation of government resources.

     

    (Vanguard)

  • President Buhari has written the Senate to confirm Justice Salisu Garba Abdullahi as FCT chief judge

    The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Thursday asked the Senate to confirm Justice Salisu Abdullahi, as the Chief Judge of the High Court of Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

     

    The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, disclosed this in a statement titled “President Buhari asks Senate to confirm Justice Salisu Garba Abdullahi as FCT High Court Chief Judge.”

     

    The statement read, “President Muhammadu Buhari has written the Senate to confirm Justice Salisu Garba Abdullahi, who has been in acting capacity, as the substantive Chief Judge of the High Court of Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

     

    “The President made the request pursuant to Section 256 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

     

    “In the letter, dated April 1, 2021, President Buhari urged the Senate to do the confirmation, ‘in the usual expeditious manner.’”

     

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.punchng.com