FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has vowed to overhaul the comatose Abuja Urban Mass Transportation Company (AUMTC) despite the challenges of funds being faced by the Administration.
The minister, who made the promise when the House of Representatives Committee on Mass Transit visited him in his office to explore modalities to revamping the once vibrant Abuja Urban Mass Transit Company, said it was embarrassing for a capital city like Abuja to lack a world-class mass transportation system.
While lamenting the hiring of the buses to churches and other event holders by the management of the transportation company, Wike blamed its comatose state on the attitude of the leadership of the AUMTC, who over the years, allowed government assets to decay because it’s not their property.
He disclosed that N2 billion was approved for palliatives by President Bola Tinubu for FCT in the federal government’s subsidy programme and his “concern was transportation, but I need to know where we are.”
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He also assured FCT residents that he would tackle the menace of one chance at once, noting that with a functional transportation system in place, one-chance operators will disappear:
Reacting to why Lagos is succeeding in public transportation but Abuja is not, Wike explained that Lagos was a state while the “FCT is like a state”, stressing that budgetary provision for the FCT was poor.
“Our budgeting system is too poor…so how will it work? We will require your help too. Thank God I am the one to supervise this year’s budget. We will come to you, please don’t pursue us,” the minister told the visiting rep members.
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