by crossriverwatch admin
The people of Cross River State have kicked against the three and two bedroom flats, Housing Estate built by the Federal Housing Authority FHA, at Odukpani LGA in the state to be sold for as high as fifteen and twelve million Naira respectively.
The eighty units estate which has been completed along the Odukpani axis of Ikom-Calabar Highway are now waiting for buyers.
Some respondents who spoke to crossriverwatch complained that the estate is too expensive for the low and even middle income earners to buy and is a sharp negation of the federal government housing- for- all promise during the President’s campaign.
A cross section of respondents ranging from civil and public servants to private business people in Calabar said the houses are not for common people of Cross River State but for the politicians and high class people in government.
One civil servant said, “For me now that is a civil servant, where will I cough out twelve to fifteen million to own a house there without stealing? They know the people they are building the estate for. All their promises of having the poor people in mind is all political talk”.
Meanwhile, while reacting to the questions asked by journalists on the cost of the housing units, the Executive Director Project, Federal Housing Authority, FHA, Dr. Enato Osain said the possibility of getting Low Income Housing for the people of Cross River State at present is very low considering the standard required and cost of building materials.
The Director who was on inspection of the Federal Housing Estate Odukpani alongside the good governance tour team in Cross River State, said the mandate given to the authority by the federal ministry of Land and Housing is to build an estate of acceptable standard on Owner occupier basis.
He however said the new social houses approved by the federal government will accommodate and bridge the gaps between the high and low income earners.
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