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General News of Wednesday, 23 June 2021

Source: thenationonlineng.net

FCDA to inspect National Assembly’s leaking roof Wednesday

Cleaners scooping the water from the lobby of the National Assembly Cleaners scooping the water from the lobby of the National Assembly

The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) will on Wednesday inspect the leaking roof of the National Assembly and other parts of the complex, The Nation has learnt.

This followed the flooding of the complex when it rained yesterday in Abuja.

A source at the National Assembly, who informed The Nation about the inspection, explained that the flooding, which affected other parts of the parliamentary building, was not unexpected.

Also, the Director of Information of the National Assembly, Dr. Emmanuel Agada, traced the deterioration of the structure to several years of neglect.

Agada said identified defects in the structure havd always been brought to the attention of the FCDA for remedial purposes.

He said: “When the buildings were inspected in the course of carrying out palliative repairs by the management of the National Assembly, it was identified that they were having structural defects because of the leakages that were observed over the years.

“And it was reported from the time of Aminu Masari as House of Representatives Speaker before it got to Yakubu Dogara and now the present leadership.

“The National Assembly has been putting forward those requests on the need to maintain the structure. After 20 years of its existence, there has not been any major maintenance work.

“I think, on the strength of the argument of the National Assembly management and, of course, the ministry in charge of the facility, we are tenants here…

“Of course, there must be something critically wrong there and you know that we do not have the full professional competence to conclude on such things, apart from saying that the building is leaking.

“Engineers here have seen it. Those that are saddled with the responsibility were to come in at least based on their own findings that something is not right. This was why the FCDA, which has right over the property, had evaluated and they went through the procurement process and went to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the FEC has approved and it was factored into the national budget, which was passed.

“So, at the point we are now, if you want to find out whether the full money for it was released at all, you go to the FCDA because it was not captured under the National Assembly capital provision. But it would be captured as National Assembly project under the budget of the FCDA.

“So, the FCDA should be in a better position to speak about what happened to that provision and why the maintenance or the repairs have not taken place.”