FG votes N2bn for Sambo’s house

The Federal Government has earmarked another N2.3 billion in the 2013 budget for the designing and construction of residences for Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo and the four presiding officers in the National Assembly.
The Vice President’s residence alone will gulp N2 billion while the balance will be spent on residences for the four presiding officers, the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and their deputies. These expenses were included in the FCT 2013 National Priority Budget presented by the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed to the Senate FCT Committee yesterday.
The projects are located in the Abuja Municipal Council (AMAC). In the capital expenditure details submitted to the committee, apart from designing and constructing the houses, guest houses would also be built for the four presiding officers of the National Assembly. Meanwhile, the minister has said that the demolition of 31 housing estates in the FCT will continue regardless of any court order. “Which law? Which law are you asking? We have the responsibility to enforce the Master Plan.
The FCDA has a law and the Abuja Master Plan is not compromising,” when asked by the committee. Committee Chairman, Senator Smart Adeyemi, asked if alternative arrangements had been provided for those who would be affected, against the backdrop that some civil servants were found to be complicit in the demolished Minanuel Estate. Mohammed replied: “I have a law on demolishing.
The law I said I don’t have is the one the chairman asked on the issue of parking. But for demolition, I have the law and I don’t even have to interfere with Development Control Law under the Land Use Act.” Although Adeyemi urged Mohammed to temper justice with mercy, the minister stood his ground, saying that the demolition will go on.
“You see, two wrongs don’t make a right and for us to allow an exclusion of an exercise of impunity or lawlessness, we are not going to condone this for any reason. “They have given a lot of sentiments as a politician; I am a civil servant. We have to go through the process,” Mohammed said.