The South West Zonal Director of the Federal Government National Housing Project, Mr Olasunkanmi Dunmoye, has promised that willing residents of Ekiti State will get the houses built by the federal government for them by April this year,
Dunmoye stated this in Ado Ekiti yesterday during an inspection of the project, situated in the Agric Olope area of the state capital.
He said the housing project would cover 70 flats for the first phase, made up of one- bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom flats, as well as semi-detached bungalows.
He said the project was designed by the federal government in 2016 as part of ways to ameliorate the sufferings of poor Nigerians, especially in the area of affordable shelter.
According to him, more than half of the houses had been completed while the remaining were in various stages of completion.
In the same vein, the road network project within the environment, as well as electrification and water provision, had equally reached between 40 and 70 per cent completion stage.
He explained that the housing project in Ekiti State could not be completed early, compared to some states, because the land originally allocated for that purpose by the Ekiti State government under the administration of former Governor Ayo Fayose was considered too far from the city centre.
“It was after then that we reached an agreement with the former government, which gave us an alternative land at the centre of the state capital where we are presently, but with a condition that we must rehabilitate the Agric Olope access road, which we have now done,” he said.
Dunmoye said a total of 15 contractors were engaged on site to prosecute the housing project, and no fewer than 1,750 persons were currently employed either directly or indirectly on site.
On complaints by some of the contractors that they had not been fully mobilized for jobs already done, the Zonal Director said the list of contractors affected would soon be compiled and sent to Abuja for clearance.
But he frowned at the attitude of some selected contractors for the housing project, who he said had refused to make appearances for the jobs ceded to them. He threatened that government would substitute them soon if they failed to turn over a new leaf.
The state Controller of Housing in the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Otegbade Oladiran and a Director with the ministry, Mrs Janet Ogunleye, who conducted the Zonal Director round the project site, gave assurances that all the components would be executed to specification.
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