The Federal Government has again appealed to Lagos State Government to provide land to enable its residents benefit from the National Housing Programme (NHP).
The Federal Controller of Housing in Lagos, Mrs Margaret Adejobi, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.
According to Adejobi, only Lagos State is yet to provide land for the mass housing programme out of the 36 states in the country.
“The last time that the Honourable Minister of Works and Housing was here in Lagos for the National Housing Council meeting, he said it, that we are still waiting for the Lagos State Government to give us a viable land that we can construct on.
“So, we will still continue to appeal to Lagos State to grant us the land, so that we can boast that we have land in all the states of the federation,” she said.
She said that the ministry was skeptical about building on a waterlogged area in Abijo near Epe allocated by the Lagos government because of affordability and accessibilities issues.
The federal controller further explained that the cost of sand filling was huge and would defeat the aim of the NHP which was to make housing affordable to all Nigerians across the 36 states of the federation.
“We are building for the masses, if we took that place at Abijo, the houses would not be affordable. It took Rivers State time to give us land, so I am really hopeful that Lagos State will come around and give us,’’ she said.
She noted that she understood the constraints of availability of land in Lagos, a coastal city, but appealed to the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration to provide the land for overall benefits of residents of the state.
According to Adejobi, some states have completed the first and second and had embarked on third phases of the NHP.
“We are hopeful that the scheme in Lagos State would soon start,’’ she said.
Speaking on the Federal Government estates in Lagos, Adejobi said her department had rehabilitated several inner roads and other infrastructure to ensure livable environment for residents.
She noted the federal government has established special project units across states that handled construction and maintenance of existing infrastructure.
“We have that unit even in Lagos State, doing building for schools, we have solar power projects ongoing, boreholes, roads as is being done nationwide,’’ she said.
She listed estates benefiting from the interventions in Lagos to include Osborne one and two, Banana Island, Games Village, Park View, Abesan, Isheri Olofin, Okun Ajah, Epe, Ikorodu, Gemade, among others.
She said that a road project was currently ongoing in the Federal Government’s estate in Aboru, adding that, projects were also ongoing in the Lagos State Government’s estates.
“At Ebute Metta, we just dug four motorized bore holes there. We don’t limit ourselves to our own estates, we do it all over to include estates owned by the state government.
“The estates are categorised by senatorial districts, we don’t discriminate in carrying out interventions. We do not have any estate in Ebute Metta.
“We have about 2,000 solar power light project ongoing, that is not within our estate. It is within Ikorodu township and we have another one going on in Surulere,’’ she stated. (NAN)