Nearly one year after its completion, Vice-President Kashim Shettima is yet to move into the new official residence built for the second citizen, Weekend Trust findings have revealed.
The building was handed over to the Presidency by the Federal Capital Territory Administration(FCTA) on June 7, 2024, when it was inaugurated by President Bola Tinubu.
Thefrontrank reports that the official residence of the Vice-President was built at the cost of N21 billion, 14 years after the contract for the building was awarded.
According to the Weekend Trust that visited the Vice-President’s official residence on Friday, January 31, 2025, only a few plain cloths security operatives were seen manning the house and the vicinity of the residence did not show any form of activity.
Multiple sources who are familiar with the matter disclosed that the delayed movement into the house by the VP is as a result of some security concerns.
Some of the sources who spoke to the newspaper pointed at the location of the VP’s newly built official residence, which they said is not ideal for occupancy by a high profile national public officer like the No.2 citizen of Nigeria.
This, the sources said, could have been responsible for the delayed relocation of the VP into the house.
The newspaper could not get official confirmation of the claims by our sources.
The spokesman to the Vice-President, Stanley Nkwocha, could not be reached for official comment on the issue.
When contacted, an official of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), the project implementation arm of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), said the work components on the Vice-President’s residence expected to be carried out by the FCT administration had been completed.
The official, who did not want to be mentioned, said after the completion, the project was handed over to the presidency on the day it was commissioned last year.
