Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, has declared the readiness of the government to partner with the Nigerian Army to provide affordable housing for personnel which they continue to use on retirement.
The governor made this known during a courtesy visit by a team of the Post-Service Housing Development Limited (PHDL), led by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO), Major General J. D. Omali.
Governor Eno commended the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Taoreed Lagbaja, for the initiative which he described as laudable adding that it was necessary to provide such facility for post-service retirement given the nature of tremendous service they render to the nation.
According to him, “I am a security-conscious person. I belong to the security community and I am always worried when I see our people go through all they go through and when they retire, within three months of exit, they are given three months to leave the barracks, and the question is always, “to where?”
“This is a very laudable project and we believe our State should be able to key into this. The process of acquiring the land itself, 200 hectares is a huge commitment for the State, and I believe that if we can do that, we have contributed our quota to the project, and it will also show that we care for our service men.
“We will do all we can to help you achieve this. It may not be in one location, but we will do our best to find you land,” he said.
Speaking further, the governor said, “the beauty of Akwa Ibom is that wherever you have a land, you can reach Uyo within one hour. We have one of the best road networks in this country and so, there is no place you can say is local anymore in our state. We are doing the best we can to integrate all our local governments areas with the centre”
Earlier in his remarks, the MD/CEO, Major General J. D. Omali, said PHDL was established to alleviate the hardship faced by officers and soldiers in securing decent housing after retiring or being discharged from service.
He noted that the body was established in1996 as a welfare scheme with the primary objective of providing houses or plots of land for officers and soldiers on retirement.
Omali maintained that since its establishment, the company now has 34 estates across the country designed to accommodate both military and civilian subscribers in the ratio of 60:40 so as not to have a repeat of the army barracks.
He commended Governor Umo Eno for his laudable development strides since inception, and appealed to the state to partner with PHDL especially through the provision of land to enable it achieve its objective in the State.
The MD/CEO was accompanied by Deputy Managing Director, Lt. Col. S. Eche, Company Secretary, Barr. Paul Edeh, Dr. Kayode Akinade and Col. K.A Umoh, Retd.