NGO Tasks RSG On Unoccupied Houses

A Non-Governmental
Organisation (NGO), the West African Project, has called on the Rivers State Government to look into the matter of completed but unoccupied houses scattered around the state.
The Country Representative, Mr Keneth Kpalap, made this call in his office in D-line, Port Harcourt, in an interview with our correspondent on Monday.
Kpalap expressed sadness over the huge number of unoccupied buildings in the state.
He said, “it is so sad to see houses built by government lying waste some occupied by hoodlums and lunatic there are yet some, illegally occupied”.
He added, these properties were built with a view to easing the accommodation challenge in the state, lamenting, “sadly this development has exacerbated the accommodation problems even more”.
He further said, “some of these houses have been paid for already, but not yet released to their owners”.
He called on the government to, as a matter of urgency, take possession of these buildings, saying they can be sold or rented to civil servants to cushion the accommodation problems being experienced by workers.
He also noted that the houses built by developers on behalf of the government were pegged at exorbitant prices and explained that no civil servant could afford such high costs and called on the government  to wade  into the matter with a view to scaling down the houses for affordability by the average worker.
He also urged the ministry of Environment in the state to quickly address the indiscriminate dumping  of refuse on road  medians and house corners, pointing out the practice was injurious to health of the residents.

Tonye Nria-Dappa