FCT: Wike Seeks Senate Approval To Get Security Votes Like Governors

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has asked the Senate to grant him approval for the insertion of security vote in the N1.1 tn budget of the federal capital.

Wike, who made the appeal while defending the FCT’s 2024 budget before the House Committee on FCT, said the security vote will allow him tackle the security situation in Abuja better without the bureaucratic bottlenecks.

According to Wike, if the FCT Administration is allowed to have security votes like State governments, he will be able to fund covert operations by security agencies to eliminate threats fast without revealing sensitive security information.

“If you recollect what we said in the security council meeting. I did say that in tackling the issue of insecurity, there are certain operations that we call covert operations and that even some peoplemay not even know. But here in Abuja, or in FCT, no security man can be given N10,000.

“He has to apply. You have to take it to the Permanent Secretary, who will take it to the DFA (Director of Finance and Accounts) before the money will be released.

“Now, in that case, you don’t even know whether it is the Permanent Secretary or the DFA, that’s giving out information regarding the operation.

“Those of us who have been Governors…the Director of the SSS can come and tell you, ‘we want to do operation on this matter this night. I will require N20million for the operation.’

“Of course, you don’t need to go and call anybody. All you need do is to give him the N20million cash. But in FCT there is nothing like that. You can’t even give N500,000.00.

“So there’s no security vote in the FCT and so, I did presented this when I we discussed about security issues. This is just to let you know, so you don’t forget that you did promise us that you will make sure that this around there would be security vote to take care of some of these challenges.”

Security votes is a monthly allowance that is allocated to the 36 states within the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the sole purpose of funding security services within such states.

It is not subject to legislative oversight or audit and disbursement of the funds is solely at the discretion of the governor.

In its 2018 report, anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International, described the money as a ‘fuel for corruption in Nigeria.’