Wike Declares FCT’s Park-and-Pay Scheme Illegal Amid Allegations of Contract Fraud

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has declared the On-Street Parking scheme, commonly known as the ‘Park-and-Pay’ scheme, to be illegal.

Wike cited fraudulent practices in the contract agreements between the managing contractors and the FCT administration as the reason for the declaration.

Wike made this announcement on Wednesday during a media briefing marking his first year in office as the FCT Minister.

The scheme, initially introduced in 2014, was reintroduced in 2023 under a contract agreement totaling N908.3 billion with concessionaires NAJEC Limited and Messrs Automaten Technik Bauman Nigeria Limited. The contract was expected to generate an estimated N26.93 billion in revenue over a 10-year term for each concessionaire.

The agreement was signed in August 2023 by the then Permanent Secretary of the FCT, Olusade Adesola, who claimed the reintroduction of the scheme had the consent of the six area councils and was intended to promote orderliness and organization in the city.

However, Wike revealed that he was not aware of the reintroduced scheme and criticized the agreement’s terms, which allocated 80 percent of the revenue to the contractors and only 20 percent to the FCT administration. He expressed concern that residents were being unfairly charged for parking in front of their homes or businesses.

“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?’” Wike recounted.

He continued, “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 percent, and the government takes 20 percent?’ Where is this 20 percent 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.’”

Wike further disclosed that contracts such as the Park-and-Pay scheme were arranged in collusion with certain secretariats within the administration, emphasizing his efforts to minimize corruption within the FCT administration.

“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.