Business
‘80% Tenants Give Landlords Fake Names In PH’
The National Union of
Tenants of Nigeria (NUTN), has revealed that over 80 per cent of tenants living in the upland part of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, give fake names and identity to their landlords.
The Executive Secretary of NUTN, Caesar Enwefah, made this disclosure yesterday in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt.
Noting that the development was inimical to the security of the state, the union boss stressed the need for landlords to partner with security agents by ensuring that correct information on data of their tenants were considered as priority issue before giving out accommodation to any tenants.
He urged the state government to come up with a blue print whereby every landlord should provide government with details of people living in their houses, adding that such details should be subject to quarterly review.
He said, “before you accommodate any tenant, you must know where he is coming from, what he does for living, and who is bringing or recommending him. More than 80 per cent of tenants living in the upland of the Port Harcourt City give their landlords fake names”.
Enwefah who commented on the planned demolition of water fronts in the city, said that demolition did not make the criminal repent, as demolition would only dislodge them from one place to another part of the state where they may continue with their criminal activities.
He maintained that one sure way of addressing the issue was to hold landlords responsible for the tenants’ activities because they live with tenants who should intimate security agents of suspicious movements of their tenants.
Disclosing further, he said the union planned to engage with the Rivers State Government on the need for occupants of water fronts to be given adequate notice to evacuate to alternative locations as well as six-months rent free to enable them prepare to relocate in view of the prevailing economic circumstances in the country.
He blamed landlords of the waterfronts for most illegality in the area as according to him, they do not fit into the urban planning of the government and do not pay official levies or rents but collects rent from tenants.
Chris Oluoh