Daily Trust

CITY NEWS FCT minister has given natives ‘Looters ready to take advantage of appointmen­ts – APC chair IPOB crisis’

- By Abubakar Sadiq Isah

The chairman of the All Progressiv­es Congress (APC) in the FCT, Alhaji Usman Abdulmalik, has said the FCT Minister, Alhaji Muhammad Musa Bello, has given natives more appointmen­ts than the past PDP administra­tion.

Abdulmalik stated this in an interview with our reporter, while reacting to criticisms from some groups that described the minister’s recent appointmen­t of secretarie­s and political ‘lopsided.

He said since the inception of FCT administra­tion, the present APC-led government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has considered the natives in terms of political appointmen­ts, adding that those criticisin­g the appointmen­ts should have a rethink and check the records to confirm the people that were appointed. mandate aides as

“If you may recall, the INEC commission­er, Halilu, is a native. We also have two ambassador­s who are also natives,” he said.

He therefore expressed hope that as the minister considered carrying out appointmen­ts in the next few weeks, the natives will again be carried along.

The APC chairman solicited for the support and cooperatio­n of residents and natives of the territory for the minister in order to provide more democratic dividends to them. The chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council, Alhaji Adamu Mustapha, has said those taking advantage of the clash between IPOB and the army in the South-east to cause tension in the council are only targeting to loot the shops of Igbo traders in the area.

Speaking during a joint stakeholde­rs meeting which had security agencies in attendance at the council secretaria­t on Monday, he said “The Igbos should know that people are eyeing the stock of goods in your shops to loot in case of any breakdown of law and order.”

He noted that though the Igbo agitation is a national issue, it had been laid to rest by the late Odumegwu Ojukwu who championed Biafra.

The chairman therefore warned that those spreading rumours in order to create tension between Igbos and other ethnic groups in the area would not be tolerated.

City News learnt that there was tension in Gwagwalada last Friday, following rumour by some individual­s of a clash between the natives and Igbo traders in the council, which caused panic and forced some traders to lock up their shops.

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