The Honourable Minister of State, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, SENATOR OMOTAYO ALASOADURA has expressed displeasure at the deplorable state of the Housing scheme in Egba, located off Upper Sakponba Road, Benin City, Edo State, which over the years, led to its vandalism.
The Minister disclosed this, when he paid a courtesy visit to the Executive Governor of the State, MR. GODWIN OBASEKI at the Edo State Government House, Benin City on Thursday, 16th January, 2020.
He said, during the inspection of the Estate, he noticed that the project have been built to a level of commissioning but have been vandalized due to its location and lack of security/ basic amenities.
SEN. ALASOADURA also lamented that bushes have over taken almost all the housing project.
He, therefore, advised the State Government in future, to allocate areas that are close to the people to avoid wastage.
He also stressed on the essence of proximity, emphasizing that “human beings are like ants who wants to live together and that it will take ages before people move here”.
In his response, the Executive Governor of Edo State, GODWIN OBASEKI, thanked the Minister for his timely visit and assured him of the State Government full support and promised to look into some of the Ministry’s project to bring it back alive and get the Units occupied.
He, therefore, seek for the Ministry’s support in the area of collaboration either in Energy sufficiency, Education, Economy, Agriculture etc.
Earlier, The Deputy Director, Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, MR. SALAS BAMAI said it was lack of funds that led to non-delivery of the projects.
According to him, ” the Housing project was awarded in 2010, 2012 and 2014 work had gone far. In 2015 , the former Minister, MNDA, Dr. Usani Uguru Usani, wanted the project commissioned but was hindered by the community because of lack of basic amenities like Schools, Hospitals, Police Post, amongst others.
He therefore called on the Federal Government to provide necessary funds to complete the project and hand over same to the beneficiaries.
In a similar development, the Minister of State, MNDA also visited the complete rehabilitation and reconstruction of OTUA-IKHIN ROAD and the OTUO-AFUZE ROAD both in OWAN EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA of Edo State, Phase 11, which are 75% and 50% completed respectively.
He commended the contractor and expressed his satisfaction at the work done so far, noting that the road is fairly good and task him to ensure that the grey areas are amended.
In his response, the resident Engineer of TRIACTA NIGERIA LIMITED, MR. PATRICK ABDALLAH, said the road project was awarded in June, 2019 and assured of its timely delivery in May 2020.
