Bello, who made the disclosure on Wednesday, said parcels of land that were in compensation for wrongs done or part of amicable resolutions to disputes, were exempted from the new order. He, however, said it was a “deliberate policy by the current FCT Administration.” Bello spoke when he received a delegation of the Catholic community in Abuja, led by the Archbishop of Abuja Archdiocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, paid him a visit in his office at Area 11, Garki I District. The minister stated that the new policy was “not to allocate new plots of land either now or in the near future until such areas or districts are clearly provided with the best complements of infrastructure.” He said the policy was not aimed at stifling development but to ensure that development went the way it should be, by providing for the best possible infrastructure before allocations were made. Bello called on religious bodies and other residents of the territory to embrace out-of-court settlement for land-related disputes, in order to reduce the time expended in seeking resolutions at the courts, which he said, retarded development of the territory. He pledged that the FCT Administration would be fair and just in allocating plots earmarked for religious worship centres in the Abuja Master Plan. “Despite the huge demands for land in the FCT, the administration will try as much as possible to ensure that plots meant for religious organisations are left for that purpose so that everybody is given a sense of belonging in the Territory. “The planners of Abuja have made plots available for religious bodies in all of the districts in the Federal Capital City and the current FCT Administration intends to implement its land allocation policy based on this plan. “I think this is standard practice. For every district, there are religious plots that cater for all the faiths. “Ordinarily, fairness should be adopted in this kind of issues. You may find some people complaining over the years, if there has not been fairness,” he said. Source:tribuneonlineng]]>