The National Housing Project of the Federal Government in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, is to be delivered in April.
South West Zonal Director of the National Housing Project, Mr Olasunkanmi Dunmoye, disclosed this in Ado Ekiti during an inspection tour of the project at Agric Olope area of the state capital.
He said, “The project was designed by the Federal Government in 2016 as part of ways to ameliorate the sufferings of poor Nigerians in the area of affordable shelter.”
Dunmoye said the housing project consisted 70 flats for the first phase, harbouring descriptions such as one-bedroom flats, two-bedroom flats, three-bedroom flats as well as semi-detached bungalows.
According to him, more than half of the houses have been completed, while the remaining are in various stages of completion
He said the road network project within the environment, including electrification and water provision had equally reached between 40-70 per cent completion stage.
The zonal head said that the housing project in Ekiti State could not be completed early as obtainable in some states, because the land originally allocated for that purpose by the 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 at present, 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, but said no fewer than 1,750 persons were employed either directly or indirectly on site.
On complaints by some of the contractors that they had not been fully mobilised for jobs already done, the Zonal Director said a list of contractors affected would soon be compiled and sent to Abuja for clearance.
He, however, frowned at the attitude of some of the selected contractors for the housing project who had refused to make appearances for the jobs awarded to them, threatening that government would substitute them soon if they failed to turn 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, assured that all the components would be executed to specification.
Source: PUNCH.
