Mr Micah Jiba, a Member House of Representatives, has decried the continuous exclusion of the FCT indigenes in the nominations of Federal appointments.
Jiba representing AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency in the FCT, made the call in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.
According to him, the exclusion of FCT indigenes in the Federal appointments was not in the interest of the people and democracy.
He, however, called on the Presidency to follow the principle of the Federal Character Commission to avoid breach of constitution.
“The situation call rose following the recent omission of the FCT slot in the composition and nomination of the 11 FCT Judges and exclusion of the career ambassador for the FCT.
“We have paid our dues more than some states of the Federation yet we are not fairly treated; Even though we have paid lots of sacrifices with our ancestral lands for the contribution of nation building.
“We are peace loving people and have never resisted the development of the territory, we have been following the rules and regulations to ensure that the FCT develops.
“So we are demanding that the President should nominate FCT indigene among the FCT Judges, nominate a career ambassador and nominate a minister from the FCT to avoid constitutional breach,” he said.
The lawmaker also called on the Presidency to find lasting solution to the continuous marginalization of the people and demanded that FCT be treated like any other State in the country.
“FCT character commission as it is enshrined in the Nigerian constitution and I quote for clarity, the Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, provides in detail that: “the composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria.
“The need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in the government or in any of its agency.
“And also in section 299 of the Nigerian constitution it stated clearly that FCT should be treated as a state but up till now I wonder why the due attention has not been given to the good people of Abuja.
“We stand on our ground to call on Mr President to reconsider the issues of a ministerial slot for the FCT, the position of career ambassador should also be nominated.
“Recently about eleven Judges were nominated but when we looked at the list we discovered that FCT was omitted ignoring the constitutional provision that said FCT should be treated as a state,” he said. (NAN
