Land allocation: FCTA adjusts plan to include armed forces

The FCT Administration has made adequate provisions in the Abuja Master Plan to cater for the land requirements of all arms of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, gave this assurance while receiving a delegation of the Nigerian Air Force Properties Limited led by its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Air Commodore Musa Tanko, in his office.

Malam Bello said that the FCT Administration had to make adjustments in recent times to protect the interests of the Nigeria Armed Forces in the territory.

The Minister revealed that a committee set up by Federal Government is currently working to make specific provisions for requirements such as training fields, barracks, shooting range as well as housing schemes for the Armed Forces in the FCT.

He said: “Within the Abuja Master Plan, we have made ample provision for lands for all arms of the Armed Forces to cater for their needs and requirements.

“A committee was set up to look at the requirements of the Armed Forces holistically in terms of their needs for barracks, training fields, housing scheme, shooting ranges and all other facilities that normally, the armed forces will require. The committee is working on that and by the time we are done, additional areas will be identified and then each of the sections of the armed forces will of course be adequately catered for”.

The Minister, however, cautioned that all development activities in the FCT must have to be carried out in consonance with the Abuja Master Plan as well as Land Use provisions.

He therefore advised the Nigerian Armed Forces to always ensure that all their developmental activities are carried out in strict compliance with the rules and regulations as stipulated by the Development Control Department of the FCTA.

The Minister thus appreciated the cordial relationship between the FCT Administration and the Nigerian Air Force, saying that they have worked very closely within the last few months on a number of interventions in the area of security.
He assured that the FCT Administration would give all the necessary support to help actualise the mandate of the Air Force as an institution.

Speaking earlier, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Air Force Properties Limited, Air Commodore Musa Tanko, said the agency takes care of the landed properties of the Nigerian Air Force including land for post service housing development as well as farm land.

Air Commodore Tanko sought for allocation of land for the construction of post service housing scheme in the Federal Capital Territory, in addition to farmland to enable the Force key into the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) anchor borrowers’ scheme.