The Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has said his administration would not go back on addressing issues of land grabbing in the capital city.
Nyesom Wike said many land grabbers took government lands without going through the formal process in line with the law.
He stated this on Thursday while distributing vehicles to security agencies in Abuja to aid crime combating.
The FCT Minister reiterated that he would not back down irrespective of blackmail from some media and civil rights activists.
“You cannot be in this position and not be blackmailed, particularly as regards this Abuja. There are so many land grabbers. Some of us have come to put our feet down, let heaven fall. It’s even better that heaven comes down now so that we won’t be fasting again to go to heaven.
“We will stop anybody who thinks he can take over government’s land for whatever without formal approval. We will not look at your face. If like you can be a civil rights activist. If you like you can be a television talker. What is wrong is wrong, no amount of blackmail can stop us,” Wike said.
The former governor of Rivers State added that the allocation FCT gets every month from the federal government cannot be enough to pay the salaries of staff in the FCT.
“Let me tell you and some us may not understand this. What does the FCT get in a month from the federal government allocation? If the federal government gets 1 trillion a month, for example, we take one percent and that is 10 billion naira. The salary of staff is 13, 14 billion a month.
“So where will you get the other one. It is through taxes, it is through revenue. You are talking about Wike is working, roads here, roads there, flyover there. You own a property, pay your land rent, you will not pay. Then every day they say Wike is working. He will work with his blood,” he added.
