By Matthew Denis Abuja
Nigerian Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, CON, has inaugurated a new twelve members of the Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria (TOPREC).
The inauguration took place at the conference hall of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Mabushi, Abuja, which was contained in statement released by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Blessing Lere-Adams
The Minister, while inaugurating the new Council members, charged them not to only uphold the standard and guidelines of the profession but raise them because it is only by doing this that the challenges faced in urban planning and development could be summanted.
He explained that the essence of constituting the Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria was to ensure that the country has a professional council that would in turn ensure that the professional Town Planners are registered as members of the Council.
Fashola also stated that the twelve members were representatives of their different states, adding that as more members are appointed from other states, they would join the council in accordance to the law.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Bashir Nura Alkali, FCI, noted that the presence of well – disciplined and adequately regulated professionals in the built environment, would improve quality of output of the professionals and invariably contribute to the quality of the environment, construction, infrastructure and national development.
He said that, TOPREC, as a critical Agency of Government under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing had the statutory mandate to regulate and control the practice of the profession of physical planning in all ramification in Nigeria.
“TOPREC Mandate includes: determining who are town planners as well as knowledge and skills required for registration of anyone who desires to practice profession in Nigeria”, he said.
Alkali revealed that the Minister approved the re-constitution of the new members of the Council after the expiration of the tenure of the former ones in consonance with the provision of Section 2(1) of the Town Planners Registration Council of Registration (TOPREC) Act 2004.
In his remark, the President of the Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria, Tpl Isiaku Mukhtar Kura, while encouraging the newly inaugurated members to form a habit to read and meditate on the Act that established the council, explained that being members of the council was a call to service that would involve sacrificing their time and resources.
Tpl Kura who conveyed the council’s gratitude to the Minister for the periodic subvention given to it, also informed the Minister that the Council has been able to build a Secretariat at Jahi district in Abuja.
The twelve TOPREC members inaugurated are; Tpl Dr. Simon Kanobi -Osoww Ajom, Cross River State, Tpl Danbaba Umar Idris,vNiger state, Tpl. Liman Gana, Borno State, Tpl. Ogunlewe Adebisi Adesoga, Lagos state, Tpl Aniekan Ubong Akpan Cross River,Tpl. Davies Tonte Joseph, Rivers State, Tpl. Aliyu Abubakar Mohammad, Jigawa state and Tpl Ogbugo Victor Filzgerald representing Delta state.