Boko Haram menace: UN Building not ready yet – FCDA

Contrary to the initial mention that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) will soon handover the United Nations building destroyed by the dreadful Boko Haram sect, the FCTA, through its Secretariat in-charge of infrastructural services and structural plan, has said that the destroyed building has to wait for another round of 2018 budget appropriation to carry out completion of the second phase of the project, confirming that the date of handover is yet to be determined.

The renovation of United Nations Building in Abuja which destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents in 2014, has gulped millions of naira.

The newly appointed Executive Secretary to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Engineer Umar Gambo Jibrin, revealed this during an inspection tour of the project and other road construction works ongoing in the FCT.

He said stated that the renovation process has had its first phase completed with focus now on the second phase, which is the installation of electrical facilities as well as proper security gadgets.

Part of the delay, according to the information before The Abuja Times, is that the United Nations is waiting to deploy its security experts for the installations.

The building which is virtually empty without installation of any working gargets at the point of inspection, may wait till 2018 to come up in full operation, making the earlier announcement of 95 percent completion by the FCT Administration quite unacceptable.

Well, as you can see, the work on the structural building has been completed and that forms the first phase of the project. This is because the entire front part of the building was damaged when the Boko Haram suicide bombers rammed into the building. The second phase is that of the gadgets and security apparatus installation now forms the second phase which is to be yet done because the fund is not available to commence the installations,” he said.

The executive secretary, while fielding questions from journalists during the inspection, remarked that the second phase of the project would again go into budget appropriation to ensure that such huge amount is ready. The statutory allocation of the FCT for year 2018 is being targeted for the release of the fund.

Commenting on the ongoing Vice-President’s house with huge amount of money, the executive secretary said that the FCDA has the primary responsibility to design and construct the building as far as the project exists within the confines of the Abuja development plan.

He revealed that the house which has drained so much, serves better purpose than the Nigerian public can imagine.

The Vice-President’s house cannot be viewed as a gate house and it has got every feature that every other multi-purpose building has and it is not expensive. For the avoidance of doubt, the building is quite affordable,” he added.