Arresting the bedlam tearing FCTA apart

SIR: By Section 299 (a) of the 1999 Constitution, Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria operates as the governor of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and this constitutional concept empowered the President to appoint a minister for the Federal Capital Territory as an overseer for him. The afore-said section provides – “all the legislative powers, the executive powers and the judicial powers vested in the House of Assembly, the governor of a state and in the courts of a state shall, respectively, vest in the National Assembly, the President of the Federation and in the courts which by virtue of the foregoing provisions are courts established for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

Thus, there is urgent need for the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike to intervene in the unending crisis attempting to create violence and civil disorder in the seat of power. From indications, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCTA has not been able to give needed directions to the warring parties in line to the orders of the court which is gradually paving ways to anarchy if not timely arrested. The height of the crisis is that court orders are no longer considered important; rather self-helps and all manner of manipulations leveraging on the vacation of the judicial officers which placed courts under lock and key except few ones opened for urgent essential matters. A society where court orders and judgment are disrespected is heading to a doom, hence, a stitch in time saves nine.

The impunity being deployed in the protracted tussle between the two companies under the control of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) namely; Abuja Investments Company Limited (AICL) and Abuja Markets Management Limited (AMML) is becoming so unfortunate to the extent that orders of various superior courts are disrespected without an atom of respect.

From investigation, the fracas began under the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Musa Bello but unresolved till he left office. When all efforts to resolve through the alternative dispute resolution mechanism failed, the Managing Director of Abuja Market Management Limited (AMML), Alhaji Abubakar Usman Faruk approached the National Industrial Court over attempts to arbitrarily push him away from office as the helmsman of the company, and also filed a second action at the Federal High Court, Abuja judicial Division.

The present minister being a lawyer and Life Bencher, a highly reverenced position in the legal profession certainly understands the magnitude of assaults to the court by such reckless manipulations from some quarters against orders of the courts, and therefore under a duty to put the house in order urgently and accordingly.
Carl Umegboro, an associate, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, public affairs analyst and social advocate, wrotee from Abuja.