Edem Effiom
Cross River State Government has pledged to complete the first phase of the 5,000 Bakassi returnees housing units in March.At present, phase one houses 50 units, excluding the two prototypes, which will ease the sufferings of returnees in the state.
The Commissioner for Social Housing, Edem Effiom disclosed this to The Guardian in Ifiang Oyong, Bakassi Local council.He said: “we have about 50 units here plus the two prototypes, that brings about 52, and then we intend to or make sure that by March, the job is delivered.
“The 50 houses may not accommodate everybody now but it is said that, ‘a journey of a thousand miles starts with a step’. As a government, we are taking the first step but this will also call for intervention”.
Edem said, the state decided not to use contractors but to partner with some stakeholders in the state in form of direct labour to deliver the project.He also disclosed that N10million was paid to Ifiang Oyong community as compensations for 150 hectares of land that housed the estate for the displaced people.
“What we have done is to partner with our people to serve as executors. They get the money from us to do the job, all they need is to look at the prototype, so it is a direct labour work, it is not a contract work, what that means is that there is no fix amount for profit here”. he stressed.On the budget for the houses, the commissioner said the governor has directed that it should not exceed N7milion per unit.
