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Residents decry poor infrastructure in Abuja estate

By Nkechi Onyedika-Ugoeze, Abuja
04 July 2016   |   2:18 am
Residents of the Cooperative City Garden Estate Sabon Lugbe in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja have decried the absence of critical infrastructure within the estate and called on the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria...

Abuja

Residents of the Cooperative City Garden Estate Sabon Lugbe in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja have decried the absence of critical infrastructure within the estate and called on the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) to prevail on the developer El-Salem Nigeria Ltd to provide necessary infrastrucure.

The residents, under the aegis of Landlords and Tenants Association of Cooperative City Gardens Estate (LTACCGE), alleged that the developer failed to provide adequate water supply for the estate adding that only one functional borehole which is not reticulated was provided for an estate with about 650 housing units.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, one of the property owners, Daly Okoro said that due to the inability of the developer to provide adequate water for the residents, most over 70 percent of the house owners resorted to drilling boreholes in their houses adding that this poses a serious danger to the environment.

He said, “ Despite the fact that the developer did not provide water, if you want to drill a borehole, he would ask you to pay between N50, 000.00 to N100, 000.00. I paid him N50, 000.00 before he allowed me to drill my borehole. He drilled three boreholes but water never came out from two, only one borehole is functional and it is not even reticulated. Does he expect people to carry buckets to go and be fetching water from the borehole”?

Okoro also alleged that over 90 percent of the internal road network within the estate are earth roads while only two transformers were provided for an estate of such magnitude.

“There is no infrastructure, no road, no water, two transformers for an estate of about 650 houses even when most of the subscribers paid 100 percent. We are not out for confrontation, we have been patient with him for 4years but he has chosen the path of confrontation”.

Another property owner, Mr. Ernie Okeke said,” we are house owners here. We both acquired our lands here at the time El-Salem Nigeria Limited advertised the estate in 2008/2009. He advertised it as a fully furnished house but we came and pay to him but he failed us by not providing the necessary facilities here. In 2013, during the meeting with the Federal Mortgage Bank he made commitments that all the infrastructure would be put in place before the end of 2014 and till date he hasn’t done anything”.

Despite the fact that when he could not deliver the houses when we had paid the advertised amount he pegged it, we were asked to pay additional amount outside the original money we paid for him to deliver on the houses and provide infrastructure.

When The Guardian contacted the company, Executive Director, Dr. Mike Onyebuchi, said the infrastructure was not completed because the firm used its money and contributions from other property owners for the infrastructure.

“When we sold the houses, we told them that they would pay for infrastructure. We have two 500KVA transformers there, we have completed the electricity, and we also did some of the road network. The letter of final allocation has a condition of sale attached to it, which they executed; the paragraph eight says that you will be expected to pay for the cost of providing infrastructure and services.”

“When we sold our houses, we never referred to the property owners as landlords. For you to be a landlord you must have a title to the property and we have not conferred title to anybody because nobody has fulfilled conditions precedent for that. Most of them that are talking to you came through a mortgage. Our intension is to make everybody landlord but as at now, the titles have not been transferred because they have not fulfilled the conditions”.

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