FG to Wade into Works Ministry, LASTMA Feud, Says Atiku
From Josephine Lohor in Abuja
Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday said the Federal Government would soon wade into the crisis between the Federal Ministry of Works and the Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA) over the control of Lagos roads.
He spoke during an audience with a delegation of Igbo-speaking community in Lagos led by its President General, Chief Uche-Sunny Momoh, at the State House.
Agents of the Federal Ministry of Works have in the last few weeks been attacking LASTMA officials for operating on federal roads, a development which Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala last week said may threaten the $100 million World Bank assistance programme for public transporation in Lagos.
Atiku who assured that the Federal Government would intervene in the matter also revealed that government had recently approved half a billion naira to tackle the ecological problems in the country, particularly inland erosion and coastal erosion in Lagos and some states in the South-east and desertification in the North.
Atiku said that "the president has already set up a council under my chairmanship to bring about Federal Government intervention on the issue of coastal erosion and also erosion in the hinterland as well as afforestation. That is people who are engaged in the business of cutting timbers and without replacing or replenishing them.
"We are not going to stop them, but if they cut, we will plant, so that we will not lose our forest. In the same manner, we are now working to arrest desertification in the North. So, every part of the country has its natural peculiarity, which the council is trying to redress and I want to assure you on that."
Atiku also stated that the Federal Government would "employ all constitutional means to make sure every Nigerian feels secured at any place he decides to reside."
The Vice President described the raging debate on the issue of settlers versus indigenes as "two words which are not in our laws and which are not in our constitution." He advised that "the people who raise the issue of settlers and indigenes should better watch out because this government is not prepared to promote that dichotomy and we will employ all constitutional means to make sure every Nigerian feels secured at any place he decides to reside."
While commending the Lagos State government for allowing an indigene of Kogi State to be elected Chairman of Ojodu Local Government, Atiku added that "so, if we are to go by this settler/indigeneship syndrome by people who are prepared to create confusion and chaos in this country, there is no way a man from Kogi will be chairman in Ojodu Local Government in Lagos State. So, Nigerians should borrow a leaf from what is happening in Lagos."
The leader of the delegation had earlier, while commending the Federal Government for providing basic amenities for the people of Nigeria, called for the dredging of River Niger.
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