The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has rejected the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) request for reconsideration over its revoked land by the FCT Administration (FCTA).

The minister announced the rejection when the customs officers, led by the acting comptroller-general, Adewale Adeniyi, visited him in Abuja on Thursday.

The NCS was among agencies, organisations and individuals whose plots were revoked by the FCTA for failure to develop their lands.

Mr Adeniyi requested land to build primary and secondary schools for the children of the more than 2,000 customs officers residing in the FCT.

“I read your letter on the revoked land, very bad; very bad; very bad, but what do I do? Mr Wike asked.

Mr Wike said FCTA would support the service to achieve its aims and objectives but lamented how government agencies were allocated lands in FCT and refused to develop them.

On the land for school development, the minister assured the customs boss that it would be considered but on the condition that the agency would pledge to develop the land within a specific period.

Failure to comply, the minister said the land would be revoked.

“I will not allocate land that will lay to thy kingdom come. So, you must convince me that you are indeed really serious about building schools for the children of your staff and our children,” he said.

Another condition, according to the minister, is for the service to pay ground rent when due.

“Be rest assured that I am going to approve the land for the school. You bring the application; I will sign it and give it to the director of lands to give the land that you can use,” Mr Wike said.

Earlier, the customs boss said the visit congratulated Mr Wike on his appointment as the FCT Minister and the outstanding work he had done so far.

(NAN)