The Federal Capital Territory Administration has said the long-awaited relocation of Apo Mechanic traders to their permanent site in Wasa District will be completed before the end of 2026.
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FCT Minister Nyesom Wike disclosed this during a media parley at his official residence in Life Camp, Abuja, saying the basic infrastructure required at the Wasa relocation site had already been completed.
Wike said the remaining issues largely concerned the governance and management structure for the new site, especially disagreements among the various trader associations.
According to him, the FCTA is working on a binding Memorandum of Understanding that will clearly define the rights and responsibilities of the government and the traders while allowing the administration to retain regulatory control over the area.
“That’s what we are working on. It’s not been easy when you have divisions among the trader associations,” he said.
The minister explained that issuing Certificates of Occupancy directly to individual traders without an agreed governance structure could make it difficult for the government to regulate future activities at the site.
“If we begin to give C of O directly, it becomes their property and the government may not have control. There is a need to have an MoU so that the government will also have control over it,” Wike said.
He expressed confidence that the outstanding issues would be resolved before the end of the year, paving the way for the traders to move permanently from Apo to Wasa.
“I believe that before the end of the year, we would have sorted out the issues. Already, the infrastructure has been provided,” he added.
Wike also urged residents and property owners in satellite settlements to regularise land allocations previously obtained from FCT Area Councils.
He said the Supreme Court had affirmed that authority over land within the Federal Capital Territory rests with the FCTA and that Area Councils lack the power to independently allocate land.
“No Area Council can allocate land to you. The Supreme Court has ruled that all lands in the FCT belong to the FCT Administration,” the minister said.
Wike explained that the administration introduced the regularisation process to protect individuals who had acquired land through Area Councils and enable them to obtain valid Certificates of Occupancy.
“What we have done is to say: come and regularise it so that we will be able to issue you a Certificate of Occupancy,” he stated.
The minister disclosed that he had already approved between 5,000 and 6,000 applications for the regularisation of Area Council land allocations.
He also said the FCTA adopted a similar approach in River Park Estate, where homebuyers were affected by expired leases and disputes involving developers and third parties.
According to Wike, the administration intervened by issuing Certificates of Occupancy to eligible homeowners to prevent ordinary residents who had paid for their properties from suffering substantial financial losses.
The minister further highlighted the newly commissioned Abuja City Gate and ongoing rural water projects as initiatives designed to directly improve residents’ daily lives.
He said the transformed City Gate had quickly become a recreational meeting point and a symbol of civic pride among residents of the capital.
Wike disclosed that the administration was also advancing plans to revive abandoned recreational facilities, including the Life Camp Recreation Centre and the Jabi Lake Recreational Park.
He said the FCTA would work with private investors to develop Jabi Lake under agreements containing firm construction deadlines and performance obligations.
According to him, the site had been allocated about 15 years earlier to persons who promised to convert it into a modern recreation centre but failed to deliver any meaningful development.
“That place was given out 15 years ago to people who said they wanted to turn it into a recreation centre, but the place was overrun by shanties,” he said.
Wike warned that the government could no longer allow valuable public land to remain undeveloped indefinitely.
“What we are going to do now is enter a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure that they immediately start construction activities. Within this period, if they don’t finish it, we take back our land,” he stated.
The minister acknowledged that government resources alone might not be sufficient to develop every recreational and infrastructure project in the territory, making credible private-sector partnerships necessary.
“Government may not be able to do all these things, and government needs to have private partners. That’s what we are doing at Jabi Lake,” he said.
On major capital projects, Wike reaffirmed the FCTA’s policy that new contracts must be properly cash-backed before they are awarded.
He said the policy was intended to prevent the abandonment of projects arising from inadequate funding and delayed payments to contractors.
The minister, however, noted that major national monuments such as the Millennium Tower would require direct funding from the federal budget because of the scale of the project and the financial impact of inflation and construction-cost variations.
Addressing concerns about commercial motorcycles and tricycles in the capital, Wike said the FCT Security Council had approved targeted restrictions on the operations of Okada and Keke Napep within central areas of the city.
He said security agencies had been directed to identify and map districts where the vehicles would be strictly prohibited.
The minister explained that the measure was intended to improve public safety, strengthen traffic control and reduce the use of commercial motorcycles and tricycles for criminal activities.
Wike also disclosed that security personnel were continuing operations to remove illegal settlements, criminal hideouts and unauthorised encampments around parts of the FCT, including Karmajiji in Kukwaba District.
He maintained that the administration would continue combining infrastructure development, land reforms, private investment and security enforcement to improve the organisation and livability of the Federal Capital Territory.
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