Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, wants the Abuja Technology Village along the airport road, to take possession of its land from illegal settlers and attract investors.
The Minister who stated this during an inspection of the Tech village in Abuja, said the land when reclaimed, would give way for construction of an office, and leave the rented apartment in the premises of Abuja Chamber of Commerce.
To this end, the FCT Minister who expressed dissatisfaction that illegal settlers had taken over a large portion of the Tech-Village allocation, urged the illegal occupiers, to vacate the area immediately, as they had been compensated.
Wike therefore promised to directed the Department of Development Control to see to the removal of the settlers, even as he vowed that no campaign of calumny would deter his administration from doing what is right.
“I have invited the Minister of Science and Technology, so that he could take active possession of the place and see how investors can come in”.
“You are in charge of this place, and you don’t even have an office here, at least to show presence and tell people that we are here. So, if an investor is coming now, he is coming to meet an empty land, and you are renting an office outside the village”.
“Please, let us know what it will take to erect a befitting office, so you can leave that place that you said that you are renting. If you calculate the amount of money you spend renting, it is a waste.
“I was thinking that a lot of activities are going on here, not knowing that it is empty land. The roads have been provided, and that ought to interest investors, but it depends on what you people have been doing since. We must quickly see what we can do”.
“I urge those who settled here illegally to know that we will not hesitate to move them out. No amount of campaign will stop us from doing the right thing”.
“I am not impressed with what I am seeing. We don’t lack the political will, as we do have it. If you don’t take action, people will not believe that anything is possible”.
“As I go back now, I will call the Development Control Department and give them ultimatum for these people to leave. They have been compensated since 2015…When this fencing takes place, you will see that they wouldn’t have choice, but to leave.” Wike said.
On his part, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Mr Uche Nnaji hinted that the idea behind the technology village was to have a replication of the London Technology city and USA Silicon Valley in the nation’s capital.
“We have a vision of this technology village, it is a vision of what is like London Technology City, with an asset base of six billion pounds, in less than six years of operation, which is what we intend to do in this place, and a replica of Silicon valley in the USA. So the infrastructure and technology that this place is going to house in a couple of years would be humongous” Nnaji said.
The Abuja Technology Village Science and Technology Park, STP, is a Special Economic free Zone expected to become Africa’s preferred destination for technology research, incubation, development and commercialisation.
By Remi Johnson, Edited By Grace Namiji
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