GPHCDA: RSG To Deliver 3,000 Housing Units

Rivers State Government says it will deliver 3,000 housing units to its citizens before the end of the present administration.

The Sole Administrator of Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority (GPHCDA), Dame Aleruchi Cookey-Gam, dropped the hint Thursday during the stakeholders forum on housing challenges organised by Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Geneva and Switzerland in Port Harcourt.

Cookey-Gam who spoke through the authority’s Director of Projects, Mr Edmund Altraide, said the government took the decision after studying the appalling housing situation in the state, noting that the situation was due to congestion of people in Port Harcourt City.

The GPHCDA boss re-affirmed government’s preparedness to provide adequate housing scheme that will accommodate those in both the private and public sector saying that work has reached advanced stage at the Phase 1A of the new Port Harcourt City around Aluu/Igwuruta communities in Ikwerre Local Government.

According to her, sewage evacuation system/water supply scheme as well as steady power supply system will be considered so as to avoid the mistakes of the past.

The former Secretary to the State Government, noted that it will not be business as usual, adding that those who are gainfully employed both in the private and public sectors are entitled to a house in the new Port Harcourt City.

Also speaking, the president of National Union of Tenants of Nigeria, HRM, Dr Frank Eke, urged the federal government to declare state of emergency in housing in order to properly address the issue.

Eze Eke who also is the paramount ruler of Evo Kingdom, said that proper housing is the right of every citizen.

He recalled that housing takes the second most substantial part of man’s income, adding that government should pay more attention to it.

Others who spoke called on the Rivers State Government to build more residential areas than commercial stores to help and address the nagging housing situation in the state.