As controversy over the status of the Centenary City Project lingers, there are strong indications that the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minister, Mallam Muhammad Bello, may have been delibera-tely misled by certain officials of the ministry into making his recent statements before the National Assembly concerning the ongoing project.

A senior staff of the ministry, who is very knowledgeable about the project, insisted at the weekend that the minister meant well, but was wrongly briefed by a clique of what he called “the old older” in the establishment.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the aim of the group was to scuttle the well-conceived project by confusing the public or leading the minister into making high profile misstatements and factual errors to embarrass him out of office.

Bello, last week, accused promoters of the project of seeking to have a parallel authority in the FCT, declaring the request for revocation of the development agreement between the Centenary City Plc and the FCT Administration as untenable and unrealistic.