The Minister of State for FCT, Ms Olajumoke Akinjide, has said that 8,000 indigenes from nine communities in the territory will be resettled in June.
This is contained in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja and signed by Mr Oluyinka Akintunde, the Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to the minister.
The statement said that 3,200 of the indigenes would be allocated houses, while 4,800 would be given plots of land in Apo in Abuja Municipal Area Council and Galuwyi-Shere in Bwari Area Council.
It added that three communities, which comprised Garki, Apo and Akpajenya, with 2,571 households, would be resettled in the first quarter of 2013 under the Apo Resettlement Scheme.
?Similarly, the statement said that six communities, made up of Utako, Maje, Jabi Yakubu, Jabi Samuel, Zhilu and Kpaadna with 5,172 households, would be resettled in the second quarter of 2013 in Galuwyi-Shere.
“The FCT Administration is committed to resolving the lingering resettlement crisis, with the inauguration of a Ministerial Committee on Facts Finding and the Way Forward on the Apo Resettlement Scheme.
“This has given the original inhabitants confidence and hope of amicable resolution of the crisis, which has lingered on for years,” it said.
According to the statement, the committee has made some useful recommendations to the administration for the peaceful resolution of the issues militating against the resettlement scheme.
?It said that the committee found out that the issue of resettlement and compensation was the business of the Federal Government.
?“It involves huge capital resources and also constitutes security problems within the territory.
?“The committee recommended that the FCT Administration should liaise with the Federal Government to include the resettlement and compensation of original inhabitants of the FCT in its National Priority Budget.”
The statement said that infrastructure was being provided in Phase 2 of the Apo Resettlement Scheme and Galuwyi-Shere.
The committee, in its report presented to the Minister of state on Dec. 13, 2012, explained that the resettlement and compensation of indigenes could not be funded satisfactorily from the FCT administration’s statutory budget.
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