The Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed has said that the recent decision to relocate the Nyanya Labour Camp is to ensure environmental and security standards as well as make way for the provision of decent housing for the residents of area.
The Nyanya Camp, which is today one of FCT’s most popular slums located less than 10 kilometers from the Abuja city centre, was built about 30 years ago for early construction workers involved in the building of the new Federal Capital City.
The Minister, who was speaking during an interactive session with some newsmen at the weekend in his office, said that the present condition of Nyanya was an eyesore and unbefitting. He said that the builders of the camp planned it as a temporary camp, hence the kind of structures that were erected there.
Mohammed stated that the current security challenges in the country, especially insurgency, have made the relocation of the Camp even more compelling.
According to him, the FCT Administration has taken several measures recently such as demolition of some buildings to enhance security and environmental sanity in Nyanya but added 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 restated the commitment of his Administration to the provision of affordable and decent housing for Nigerian workers stressing that the gesture was behind the recent flag off of the construction of 40,000 housing units for workers in Abuja, a gigantic project which covers two districts in Apo Tafyi and Lugbe extension respectively.
He said the land swap policy which he introduced in FCT about two years ago has helped to accelerate development via triggering of the process for the opening of over 10 districts within the next four years.
He further explained that he embarked on the globally acceptable programme to catalyze infrastructural development and generate funds for the FCT as a response to dwindling budgetary allocations from the Federation Account.
Beside acceleration of physical development, he listed 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.
