Low turnout marks
Abuja
By Don Bassey
Correspondent, Abuja
Only 700 certificates
of occupancy (C-of-O) of the 21,420 issued have been returned to the Abuja
Geographic Information System (AGIS) exactly one month after it began a
re-certification exercise following the withdrawal of all land title-deeds by
Federal capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nasir el-Rufai,
At that rate, 6, 300
C-of-O would be returned in the nine months the exercise is billed to last,
leaving the remaining 15,120 at the mercy of the minister.
El-Rufai had said
“any title-holder who fails to certify his or her C-of-O or get it
re-issued as appropriate within the period, will be deemed to be holding a
forgery, and the land in question re-possessed by the minister of the Federal
Capital Territory”.
But fielding questions
from newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja on the activities of the re-certification
team, its Administrator Altine Jibrin said the low turnout would improve with
time, since “Nigerians like to rush at the last minute, no matter the
duration allotted to any programme”.
Meanwhile, only
contractors who hold the fellowship of the Convention on Business Integrity
(CBI) would henceforth be allowed to bid for contracts advertised by the FCT
Ministry and its major parastatal, the Federal Capital Territory Development
Authority (FCDA).
El-Rufai made the
announcement in Abuja on Tuesday at the ministry’s signing to the CBI.
He also said he would
soon establish the Office of the FCT Ombudsman which will receive complaints
from staff and members of the public about corrupt practices in the ministry
and forward the names of the perpetrators to the Independent Corrupt Practices
and Other Crimes Commission (EFFC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC).
