The Minister of the Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed has described Nyanya Labour Camp, a suburb of Abuja, as a notorious slum that is habouring dangerous criminals operating around the capital city. He vowed that the slum will soon be cleared of the hoodlums and moved to Gidan Daya.
The Minister who was speaking during an interactive session with some newsmen at the weekend in his office in Area 11, Garki District, Abuja, said that the present condition of Nyanya was an eyesore and not befitting.
Nyanya, located less than 10 kilometers from the Abuja city centre, was built about 30 years ago for early construction workers that were involved in the building of the new Federal Capital City.
Senator Bala recalled that the builders of the camp planned it as a temporary camp, which symbolized the kind of structures that were erected in the area.
According to the minister, the current security challenges in the country caused by Boko Haram have made the relocation of the Nyanya Labour Camp even more compelling.
He said that the FCT Administration has taken several measures recently such as demolition of some buildings to enhance security and environmental sanity in Nyanya, adding that the situation can be salvaged without relocation.
The Minister said that Gidan Daya, the chosen relocation site for Nyanya is a new district located within the same Abuja Municipal Area Council on the Karshi axis.
He said that his administration is committed to the provision of affordable and decent housing for Nigerian workers and that the recent flag off of the construction of 40,000 housing units for workers in Abuja is part of such move.
The minister said that the land swap policy which he introduced in FCT about two years ago has helped to accelerate development with the opening, in the next four years, of over 10 districts.
He said that in addition to the acceleration of physical development, other benefits of the land swap initiative to include the curtailing of sharp practices in land transactions, creation of jobs and employment opportunities for thousands of youths, solving of resettlement and compensation challenges and elimination of the problem of land freezing among others.
He said that the administration is considering the option of funding the Gitata-Abuja road project through land swap system, and that with such system, contractor would be given land in exchange for road construction.
The road, when completed, he added, would help to reduce pressure on the ever busy Abuja-Nyanya-Keffi express road by serving as a diversion. [myad]
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