Natives of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to appoint a native of the FCT as one of his ministers.
The natives made the appeal in a letter signed by Daniel Dauda Zhidu Esq, AMAC’s representative of the FCT Youth Network, dated June 19, 2023, and addressed to President Tinubu.
The natives noted that since the advent of democratic dispensation in May, 1999, no nomination for a ministerial appointment had been made from Abuja-FCT; not even a personal assistant.
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The letter reads in part, “Yet by the combined relevant provisions of the constitution (Sections 14(3), 147(3), 42 and 299) as juxtaposed the Court of Appeal’s case of Okoyode vs FCDA[2005] 27 WRN 97, the locus classic case that by a unanimous decision of a full court of five justices declared Abuja-FCT to be in law a state in the federation.
“Thus Abuja Indigenes are entitled like the other 36 states to the appointment of at least one of them as a minister into the Federal Executive Council.
“No amount of hue cry and continuous peaceful agitations by Abuja indigenes has changed the situation. And so therefore we remain the only people without a voice in the federal cabinet. Such has been the status quo till date.’’
