A motion seeking to investigate alleged land grabbing, demolitions, salaries, sewage disposals and other administrative issues in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) suffered a setback on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday after it was ruled procedurally defective.
The motion, sponsored by Senator Ireti Kingibe, was presented as a matter of urgent national importance under Orders 41 and 51 of the Senate standing rules.
Further concerns raised in the motion included designation of green areas under the Abuja Master Plan, intended as service corridors for sewage, water and electricity infrastructure, as well as environmental buffers, are being built on through illegal revocations, forced evictions and reallocations.
Kingibe stated that the Senate had barely a year ago, intervened and called the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, to order over related issues bordering on unlawful land administration, disregard for due process and encroachment on legally vested land rights, noting with concern that despite such prior legislative intervention, the same practices persist.
However, the upper chamber declined to debate on it, declaring that it did not meet the requirements for urgency as stipulated by the rules.
During deliberations, the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, argued that the motion was dead on arrival, rather lauding the FCT Minister for transforming Abuja and describing his performance as commendable.
In his remarks, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, stated the motion lacked focus and could not be classified as urgent. He again noted that while Abuja is now rated as one of the most developed cities in Africa, the motion combined several unrelated issues, including land administration, workers welfare, demolition, salaries and waste management.
“When a senator raises a matter of urgent national importance, it must be specific and focused, if it is about waste management, then it should be on waste management alone, not linking salaries, demolition and land administration. This cannot be described as a matter of urgent national importance,” Akpabio said.
The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, also underscored that matters of urgent national importance must be issues that cannot wait until the next day, advising Kingibe to withdraw the motion and re-present it as a substantive motion.
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Senator Victor Umeh, however, defended the proposal, insisting that the waste management component of the motion was a serious issue that deserved urgent attention.
Further clarifying his position, Akpabio asserted that the motion amounted to a broad probe of the entire FCT, which fell outside the scope of Orders 41 and 51, noting that the inclusion of issues beyond waste management rendered the motion inadmissible.
Senator Munguno described the motion as incurably bad. Consequently, Senator Kingibe was given the opportunity to withdraw the motion and resubmit it as a substantive motion limited strictly to waste management issues.
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