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From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
The Senate has rejected a motion to summon the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, over worsening waste management, sewage failures and the alleged unlawful revocation and conversion of designated green areas in Abuja.
The motion, titled, “Urgent Need for Intervention in Waste Management, Sewage Services, Protection of Designated Green Areas and Investigation into the Alleged Unlawful Seizure of Land Belonging to Bwari General Hospital, FCT,” was sponsored by Senator Ireti Heebah Kingibe (LP, FCT), alongside Senators Wadada Ahmed Aliyu, Mohammed Muntari Dandutse, Neda Bernards Imasuen, Aminu Iya Abass, Ibrahim Hassan Dakwanbo and Orji Uzor Kalu.
Presenting the motion under Order 41 and 51, which allows for urgent matters of importance to be raised without prior notice, Kingibe said the situation in the nation’s capital had reached crisis proportions, noting that municipal waste collection across several districts of the FCT has not been carried out for several weeks, leading to massive accumulation of solid waste in residential, commercial and public spaces.
She told the chamber that workers and contractors under the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and other FCT agencies had not been paid for about nine months, a development she said had triggered industrial action and the collapse of essential municipal services.
According to her, former waste management contractors were not paid between March and October 2025, and although new contracts were awarded in mid-November 2025, only 50 percent of the former unpaid contractors were retained, while 50 percent new ones were introduced. Kingibe added that the newly engaged contractors had formally written to the FCT Minister, stating that “they cannot commence operations without a 30 percent mobilisation fee,” further worsening delays in waste collection and sewage management.
She warned that sewage blockages and accumulated waste had been building up for nearly eight months and had now reached crisis proportions, stressing that blocked and overflowing sewage systems expose residents to waterborne diseases, environmental contamination and severe sanitation risks.
Beyond sanitation, the senator accused the FCT Administration of undermining the Abuja master plan through what she described as systematic conversion of designated green areas.
“Green areas under the Abuja masterplan, intended as service corridors for sewage, water and electricity infrastructure, as well as environmental buffers, are being built on through illegal revocations, forced evictions and reallocations,” she said.
She further alleged that “even where the reallocation of land is the subject of ongoing litigation, the FCT minister has proceeded to demolish and reallocate such lands in total disregard of subsisting court processes.”
She cited the University of Abuja as a major victim, saying, “about 7,000 hectares of the university’s original 11,000 hectares have been taken over, reallocated or subjected to unauthorised use, leaving the institution with insufficient land to fulfil its statutory mandate.”
Recalling previous Senate’s intervention, she said: “Barely a year ago, this Senate was compelled to call the Minister of the FCT to order over similar issues, yet these practices persist.”
However, the Senate called for the motion to be dropped for not complying with the rules of the Red Chamber. Raising the issue, Senate President Godswill Akpabio said Kingibe had informed him, in compliance with the rules of the Senate, of a motion on rising solid waste in the FCT and its attendant health risks but didn’t mention other issues, like the inclusion of land revocation.
He noted that the order she cited only permits her to speak on a particular topic, adding that she ought to have raised a substantive motion to talk about everything she spoke of in her debate.
Similarly, Borno North Senator, Tahir Monguno, who had initially supported the motion and called for a summon of the FCT minister, later withdrew his support. Also, the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, dismissed the allegations against Wike as baseless, saying evidence of his work was clear for all to see.
“There are now developments in the FCT. The current minister changed the face of Abuja. He’s doing extremely well. You cannot solve all problems at the same time, if there are other areas that need to be done, we should engage our committee to interact with the minister so that he could do more,” he said.
Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, also called for the withdrawal of the motion, calling for a substantive motion on notice
After the debates, Akpabio urged Kingibe to withdraw the motion and bring a motion on notice instead to which she complied.
“I will re-present it as a substantive motion on waste management,” she said.
