Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed has said that heads of agencies and directors in the FCT administration cannot be trusted as they have consistently lied to him about the state of the capital city.
The Senate Committee on the FCT had last week lampooned the minister over the deplorable state of Abuja, saying the city had deteriorated to its old state under him.
Addressing journalists after an inspection tour of the city, during which he came face-to-face with all manner of environmental degradation in the city, including commercial motorcyclists popularly called Okada who were operating unhindered in Area One, Garki, the minister accused the directors and heads of agencies of feeding him lies about the state of affairs in the city in their reports to him.
“I have seen that all the information the directors have been giving me in the files are lies. They told me the city is clean but it is not true. We have gone round with you. They told me there are no street traders, but there are street traders everywhere. They told me there are no beggars but we saw them everywhere today. They told me there were no okada riders but in fact, the okadas are more than the vehicles. Definitely, you can see that what they told me is not true.“
It is good to go for inspection and supervision, not just sitting in the office but making sure that you go out and do on the spot assessment and find out things for yourself,” he said.
Recalling that he had earlier in December 2013 read a riot act to the heads of agencies to sit up or be shown the way out, the minister again warned that anyone not willing to work should either resign or be sacked as the administration cannot continue to allow lack of capacity by some of its directors to thwart the efforts it was making to sanitise the city.
“Anybody who feels he cannot capture our vision and passion should humbly resign. My patience and that of my Minister of State is exhausted. They are under strict notice and anyone who does not comply and work hard will be shown the way out,” he added.
Source: Leadership
