‘Centenary City Project not controversial’

The Managing Director of Centenary City Plc, Dr. Ike Odenigwe, has said there is no controversy regarding the centenary project except the controversy created by the people that wanted controversy.

Dr. Ike who made this known during a presentation at citizen public hearing on land issues in the FCT organized by a civil society organization, Say No Campaign, said all the natives were appropriately compensated and resettled.

“Increasingly we hear controversial centenary city project whereby there is no controversy except those that were created by people. All the controversy you hear about the centenary city are personal issues,” he said adding that everything about the project was done with due process.

He said the supposed controversy on the role of the FCDA and the declaration of the allocation place as a free trade zone followed due process and are verifiable.

“All compensations have been paid by money contributed by shareholders of centenary city. We have no issues with compensation and we have no issues with original inhabitants. So where are the controversies?,” he queried.

He said there is no controversy adding that the project would provide 250, 000 jobs and 150, 000 construction jobs by the company owned by 42 local and foreign shareholders.

A representative of the Chairman House Committee on FCT, Morgan Omodu, said nobody is against the lofty ideas of the project but the committee discovered that rules were set aside probably because of some influences.

“The controversy in this matter is simple, why was the land swap model not used to ensure that the project becomes a success, was there compensation. Nobody is witch hunting anybody and no personal interest,” he said.

The convener Ezenwa Nwagwu said issue of the land swap policy has been quite challenging including that of the centenary city necessitating the intervention of the National Assembly but the group discovered a gap in the reports.

“We wanted to get materials that can be useful to civil society for advocacy and ensure that Nigerians are not shortchanged and the only way we thought that is possible is through a citizen public hearing,” he said.

The community head of Karshi, Alhaji Ismaila Mohammed in his presentation lauded the projects but appealed for transparency while he urged the National Assembly to conduct its activities in a manner that won’t be seen as witch hunting.

The hearing which was chaired by Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim was attended by major stakeholders including civil society organizations and original inhabitants of FCT.