Wike Reveals Greatest Challenge He Is Facing In Abuja

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has lamented that his most significant challenge in the FCT is the refusal by Abuja residents to pay ground rent and other taxes.

The Minister, while speaking to newsmen on Wednesday, lamented that residents want infrastructure in the FCT but fail to support the government by paying their taxes.

Wike disclosed that the debtors owed as much as 20 years, even though the ground rent has remained the same for many years.

The minister said he would not succumb to blackmail by a section of the elite who continue to violate laws, especially regarding the payment of Ground Rents.

Wike said, “(My greatest challenge) is the challenge of people refusing to pay their money. I will speak on that in the next media chat. And people just want facilities, people want infrastructure. But nobody asks, where are you getting these funds? Abuja is not one of the oil cities, we only rely on taxes. These are not new taxes. These are taxes that have been here for years.

“It is unfortunate that most elites own houses overseas. They know the implication of not paying taxes, they know such houses are gone. But when it comes to your own country, you don’t want to do that, simply because nobody wants to obey the law, everybody thinks there are no sanctions.

“Look at the years, 20-something years, 30-something years. And how much is it? We have not increased the ground rent, but we are working towards that, we will do that, I can assure. The President has given a waiver of two weeks. Let nobody think that blackmail or whatever will stop us; we will do what we are supposed to do.”

The Minister also stated that he had recently signed over 1,500 Certificates of Occupancy and Deeds of Assignment, while again encouraging residents to pay their taxes and ground rents to aid development in the FCT.

He said, “If you pay tax, you will see that it will be a different thing. And that’s what we are trying to do.

“I can assure you, the President has given a window of two weeks. Let nobody think that blackmail or whatever will stop us. We will do what we are supposed to do. This is all about leadership. We will not give in to blackmail. We will do the right thing. If you have not paid, we will take”.