The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has condemned what it described as an unwarranted and misguided attack on the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed by the executive Chairman of the Coalition against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), Comrade Debo Adeniran over the $470m (N76billion) National Public Security Communications System Project in Abuja, otherwise known as the CCTV Project.
In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister, Nosike Ogbuenyi said the CCTV contract was neither awarded nor executed by the FCTA.
“We regard that unguarded outburst by Comrade Adeniran as a shameful advertisement of ignorance not just on the part of the man himself but also on the part of the organization that he purports to lead. While the FCT Administration has been doing a lot to enhance security of lives and property in the FCT and is ever ready to collaborate with any person, institution, ministry, commission or group committed to the same objective, the fact needs to be stressed that the Abuja CCTV project was never a baby of the FCT Administration by conception, execution or supervision”, spokesman of the FCTA said.
Mr. Ogbuenyi therefore called on CACOL and its executive chairman to render an unreserved apology to the FCT Minister for wrongful accusation and defamation.
He said: “If those calling for FCT Minister’s prosecution on account of a CCTV contract that he neither originated nor executed are not comprehensive illiterates, they should have been able to at least carry out preliminary internet research on the project to ascertain those that awarded and executed the contract.”
Ogbuenyi described the CCTV project as an important project in the estimation of the FCT Administration and enjoined those responsible for the installation, completion and operation of the vital security devices to make them fully operational.
