The House of Representatives has started an investigation into federal government buildings in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
In opening the investigation on Thursday, Speaker of the House Femi Gbajabiamila noted that there were many underutilised or abandoned government facilities throughout the nation, which made the investigation necessary.
Gbajabiamila, who was represented by Henry Nwawuba, the chairman of the House Committee on Legislative Agenda, asserted that if abandoned assets are maintained effectively, the country will greatly profit from them.
“Across the country, several properties belonging to the Federal Government of Nigeria have been abandoned, and others severely under-utilised for many years. The Federal Government of Nigeria possesses a large stock of abandoned properties that could become viable assets for the benefit of the Nigerian people if managed properly.
“The House of Representatives has since resolved to help identify these assets and take legislative action to help ensure they are either put to good use or transferred to provide income for
the Federal Government of Nigeria,” the speaker stated.
The chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee investigating abandoned federal government properties, sub-committee on FCT, Jonathan Gbefwi, in his opening remarks, said abandoned government properties across the country are worth hundreds of billion naira.
Gbefwi explained that the intention of the panel “is to determine exactly how many there are, where they are located, the reasons for their abandonment and the options for recovering, reviving, and revitalising these assets to the benefit of the Nigerian people.”
“These projects are a visual manifestation of the excesses and failure to plan effectively and execute efficiently that has hampered our national growth and development for many years. In seeking to account for these assets, the House of Representatives, through this Ad-Hoc Committee is simply trying to rewrite past wrongs.”