FCT Aborigines ask for more senatorial districts, constituencies

The original settlers of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), otherwise known as the aborigines, have asked the Federal Government to create two additional senatorial districts to enable the territory to produce equal senators like other 36 states of the federation.

They also solicited for the immediate creation of more constituencies to allow them to produce more House of Representative members at the lower house.

The FCT presently has only one senator and two members in the House of Representatives, a situation they described as “unfair.”

The Director, Institute of Governors and Development Studies, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Professor Andrew Ezadueyan Zamani disclosed this yesterday in his welcome address to the 5th Annual Gbagi Cultural Festival 2020 held in Karu, Abuja.

Zamani, who was the chief host, said, “We believe that when the federal government finally concedes the third tier to us and approves two additional senatorial districts and federal constituencies for the FCT, the same goodwill shall be extended. It is unfortunate that the territory presently has only one senator and two House of Representatives members.”

Earlier, the chairman of the occasion and former co-ordinator, FCT Satellite Town Development Agency, Tanko Ishaku Yamawo, said, “We are here to display our rich culture, to help our children have the basic knowledge and background of their culture and heritage to avoid going into extinction.”

In his speech, the Executive Chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Abdullahi Adamu Candido, who donated over N500, 000 to provide cultural museum for the festival, appealed to the nine original settlers in the FCT not to allow their culture to die.

He said, “all of the original settlers of Gbagi, Gwadara and Fulanis, just to mention a few, should not continue to hate ourselves; we must work together to safeguard our culture, heritage, and our future so that the other tribes that have come to stay with us in FCT will not play with our matrimonial rights.”