By Stanley Onyekwere
The director of Satellite Towns Development Agency (STDA), Tukur Ibrahim, has declared that the agency had not taken over the responsibilities of Area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but was only complementing their efforts at improving living conditions of people at the grassroots.
He said, instead the agency had rather developed a very cordial relationship with the authorities of the councils, to impact positively on the living conditions of people in the satellite towns, as efforts to give infrastructural facelift to the towns are ongoing.
“Because most of the activities we do are directly impacting on the area councils, but that is not to say that we are taking over the responsibilities of the councils.
“What we are doing is to support the councils in various aspects,” Abuja Digest Weekly, a publication of the FCT Administration, yesterday, quoted the STDA boss, in its 4th edition.
Citing the example of the sanitation exercise being carried out by the STDA in the satellite towns, the director said it is the Councils that are funding waste management in the satellite towns, adding that what the agency does is to improve on their (Councils) capacity through the monitoring and implementation process.
“Each area council contributes certain amount monthly, which STDA spends through their Heads of health and environmental; who bring out what they want to do per week and we give them the money to go ahead and do the job and supervise them directly.
“We are also supporting area councils in the area of capacity building. Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) for example, had a bridge that collapsed and they wanted us to do the design for them and we have supported them to do the design. We will also support them to do project monitoring and supervision.
“AMAC has also asked us to support them in terms of Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement on some of the plots that have been allocated in Orozo, and we are working on that.
“We need to do more for the residents of satellite towns, for the dividends of democracy to be delivered to them,” he stressed.
