The Federal Government has promised to turn its abandoned secretariat at Ikoyi in Lagos into luxury apartments.
The plan is part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration’s efforts to revamp disused government buildings across the state into modern complexes for the benefit of Nigerians.
The Ikoyi federal secretariat was abandoned following the movement of the seat of power from Lagos to Abuja in 1991.
Housing and Urban Development Minister Ahmed Musa Dangiwa announced the government’s plan while inspecting the abandoned secretariat yesterday in Lagos.
The minister, who also inspected other Federal Government’s buildings in the megacity, said the plan would deplete the housing deficit in Lagos.
He announced that the Federal Government had reached a tripartite arrangement to ensure that all its buildings, including the former office of the Ministry of Housing and that of Works at Onikan on Lagos Mainland with over 40 Ministries and Ministries and Departments (MDAs), were given a modern turnaround.
Dangiwa said: “We will talk to the Lagos State government and Dr. Wale Babalakin (Chairman of Resort International Limited) in the public interest. I believe the building (former federal secretariat) should revert to the Federal Government though we can buy him out from the concession.
“The state government is asking for the right of first refusal, but I believe our proposed tripartite agreement will readily come to the rescue to resolve the impasse, going forward.”
A Development Lease Agreement (DLA), dated October 10, 2006, granted Resort International Limited a 99-year lease to redevelop the abandoned federal secretarial complex into 480 luxury apartments.
