Francis Sadhere
Supervising Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku has met with some community leaders in the Niger Delta region, where the Ministry is building some housing units, to discuss the modalities of allocating the houses.
The Minister who met with these community leaders from Edo, Bayelsa and Delta States at Protea Hotel, Warri, Delta State, told journalists that the purpose of the meeting was to ensure that there was no crisis when the ministry starts allocating the houses.
Arc. Ishaka also said that he decided to lead the team because of the delicate nature of the assignment, adding that the ministry will ensure that widows, aged and children will be given priority during the allocation process.
He said; “We have virtually concluded the housing schemes but we want to get the inputs of those on grounds. So we are meeting with the Chiefs and Community leaders and we are giving them our intention on how the sharing will be done, but we want their inputs first.”
While noting that many of the housing units were in various stages of completion, the Minister stressed that the ministry decided to start the allocation process before the houses were completed in the next two months, so as to fast-track allocation and commissioning.
“Most of the projects are in various stages of completion; some are 87 and 97 percent complete. What we want to do is we want to start the process of allocation now so that in a month or two when it is virtually completed, we should be able to start allocating and commissioning. We want to do this process and complete it before we start allocation,” he said.
He said that because of the sensitive nature of the houses, modalities for allocation will differ from community to community, adding that they are trying to sensitize the people and get a system in place were the sharing would be done equitable.
“What we are doing now is that we are trying to make sure that no conflicts come when we want to allocate these houses to the communities. As you are aware, the accommodation is short of the demand and no matter how many you build people will still require more. So what we are doing now is to sensitize people and get a system in place where the sharing is done equitable,” he stressed.
At the end of the briefing the Minister went into a separate closed door meeting with each of the three communities from the three states – Egba community (Edo State), Gbaramatu community (Delta State) and Odi Community (Bayelsa State).
