Minister says Abuja was designed for 1Million people

The FCT Minister, Muhammad Sani Bello, has said that Abuja city was designed to accommodate only one million people.

Bello stated this while receiving a visiting delegation from the Republic of Columbia on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 in his office.

According to the minister, Abuja city was not designed for a population of more than 1 million people but that today, the nation’s capital is housing more than six million residents.

Alarmed by the present situation which is leading to frequent traffic in and around the city, Bello said he will focus on the development of basic infrastructure in the six Area Councils and the satellite towns in order to decongest the Abuja metropolis.

According to him, the sustained influx of people into the Federal Capital City has multiplier effects on the city’s infrastructure and services adding that the FCT Administration must be proactive to nip the congestion by the bud.

A statement signed by Muhammad Sule Hazat, Chief Press Secretary, the FCT Minister said his administration would also assiduously work towards the maintenance of already existing infrastructure in the Federal Capital City to enable it play its role of being the unity city and a melting pot for all Nigerians.

“We are working towards maintaining the existing infrastructure, and then of course, gradually extending development outside the city into the six Area Councils where most of the population is,” the Minister said.

The leader of the delegation and a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Columbia, Senator Edinson Delagado said that the main objective of the visit was to strengthen diplomatic relations between the two countries.