Nearly one year after its completion, Vice President Kashim Shettima is yet to move into the new official residence built for the No.2 citizen, Weekend Trust findings have revealed.
The official residence, said to have been built at the cost of about N15 billion, was commissioned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on June 7, 2024. The building was handed over to the Presidency by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration.
When the paper visited the 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 said 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 this 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.
We 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.
