The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) has refuted a newspaper report suggesting that the Agency had reclaim diplomatic plots in Abuja belonging to Ghana, Malaysia and Thailand.

The report, published in the December 5, 2022 edition of one of the national dailies, had attributed the statement to the Executive Secretary of the FCDA, Engr. Shehu Hadi Ahmad.

Reacting to the publication, however, the FCDA stated categorically that “at no time throughout the End of Year press briefing on the activities of the organization held on Wednesday November 23, 2022 did the Executive Secretary talk of reclaiming any embassy’s plot, not the least those of Ghana, Malaysia or Thailand as the issue of Diplomatic plots was never part of his presentation.”

According to the rebuttal, signed by the Head, Public Relations/Information in the FCDA, Mr. Richard A. Nduul, “what happened was that during the question and answer session at the end of the Executive Secretary’s presentation, a question was asked about the challenges with some diplomatic plots and whether the issue has been resolved?”

“The response by the Executive Secretary is reproduced here for the public to judge.

“You raised the issue of challenges with Diplomatic plots at some of our new layouts notable Guzape. Part of the reasons for developing Guzape layout is to handle some of these Diplomatic plots that had to be consumed by infrastructure development.
Actually, really some Diplomatic plots were affected by the RR1/Goodluck Jonathan way interchange around the stadium. You know when you have an issue with an embassy; it is like you are having an issue with the government of that nation and everything that must be avoided must be done to see that it is avoided. It is not just about getting a plot and saying go there. When you are inside an Embassy, you are completely outside Nigeria. We have gotten replacement plots and the affected embassies have indicated readiness to accept”

“It can therefore be seen from the above response that while it is true that the Executive Secretary acknowledged that we actually do have challenges with some embassy plots at the Ring Road 1 by the Inner Southern Expressway (ISEX)/Goodluck Jonathan way around the stadium, and that efforts are being made to address the affected cases, he never listed the name of any embassy.

“This is the true and correct representation of what happened during the Executive Secretary’s Media Briefing and it is hoped that the submission of this facts will also put the matter to rest.”