By Sarah NEGEDU
Respite may be coming the way of car owners in the Federal Capital Territory, as the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has declared the On-Street Parking scheme, ‘Park-and-Pay’, illegal and fraudulent.
The Minister who stated this during a media briefing on Wednesday, to mark his first year in office, said the scheme had been marred with alot of flaws in the contract agreement between the managing contractors and the FCT.
He specifically frowned at the sharing formula where, the consultant takes 80 percent of the revenue generated from on street parking, while the FCT Administration gets just 20 percent.
According to him, a call from a senior advocate, brought to light a scheme that has been siphoning government funds under the guise of a legal operation.
“The scheme, which appears to have been operating under the radar, highlights a critical flaw in the system that allows private consultants to pocket the lion’s share of revenues meant for the government.”
Recall that the Park and Pay policy which was first introduced in 2012, was stopped in 2014, before it was later reintroduced in 2023 after the FCT Administration signed a N908.3 billion agreement with concessionaires with an estimated N26.93 billion revenue for a 10-year term each.
However, the FCT Minister who said he was unaware of the reintroduced scheme, urged Nigerians to call government’s attention to irregularities in the system saying, “These are things we need to fight within the system. Sometimes, if you don’t bring it to our attention, we may not know. We can’t be everywhere.
“The incident unfolded when a colleague of mine, a senior advocate, called me and said, ‘Sir, people came to the office now, trying to hijack all our cars.’ He said they were from the Transport Secretariat. I said, ‘Give the person the phone.’ I asked, ‘Who are you? What are you doing?’ He said, ‘Park and Pay.’ I replied, ‘What do you mean by Park and Pay? I park a car in my house, and I pay?’
“I called the Transport Secretariat and the Mandate Secretary. I asked who introduced this Park and Pay scheme and what it meant. Who collects the money? It turned out there were agreements between the (Transport) Secretariat and some individuals who claimed to be consultants. Then I asked, ‘Consultants take 80 per cent, and the government takes 20 per cent?’
“Where is this 20 per cent being paid to the government? I instructed that a statement be drafted. I called the Director of Press and said, ‘Send out a statement informing the public that there is no such thing as Park and Pay. It is illegal. That’s what I’m trying to convey,” he said.
The Minister disclosed that contracts such as the Park and Pay scheme were arranged in collusion with secretariats within the administration, stating that he was striving to reduce corruption in the system to the bare minimum.
“The point I’m making is that, no matter how you shuffle things, you still have civil servants working with you. It is not easy, but you try as much as possible to reduce it to the bare minimum. But we must continue to fight hard,” he added.
The minister said he had since directed that a statement be released to inform residents that the scheme was illegal, emphasising that people should not be made to pay for parking in front of their businesses or places of residence.
