Minister laments over deplorable state of FHA Lugbe roads

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna,Jennifer Jonah

The Minister of State II for Power, Works and Housing, Surv. Suleiman Hassan Zarma, has lamented the deplorable condition of road and drainage infrastructures at the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) estate, Lugbe, attributing it to critical failures of the planning authorities in time past in upgrading them, giving room to the flagrant abuse of planning regulations by residents.
Zarma stated this yesterday in Abuja during an assessment tour of the infrastructural facilities at the estate along side with the Managing Director of Federal Housing Authority, Prof Mohammed Al-amin.
According to him, ‘’the typography of the estate was not fully taken into consideration at the planning and design stage, hence the reason for the hydraulic failures.’’ He added that though the facilities that were initially deployed, like the drainage system, maybe small and over stretched such that it cannot contain large volume of water especially during the flooding period.
This was contained in a statement that signed by Olatunji John ,Principal Information Officer for: Director (Information) said the Minister expressed that the present administration, as part of its commitment to the citizenry, will however, not relent in upgrading of infrastructural services across the country to enhance and improve the living standards of Nigerians Federal Government owned estates.
Earlier, the Managing Director of the Federal Housing Authority, Prof. Mohammed Al-amin thanked the Federal Government and the ministry for massively investing in infrastructures across the country and maintaining the existing structures.
While conducting the Minister and journalists round the roads and other facilities in the estate, Al-amin stated that the essence of the visit is to upgrade the FHA settlement into an urban centre due to its proximity to the city centre and the different categories of civil servants living in the housing estate.
Speaking at the site of the inspection, the Chairman of the Residents Association, Mr Odelana Adesina thanked the Minister for creating time to visit the estate. He said the residents are glad that the visit by the Minister has given him the opportunity to have a firsthand information about the deplorable state of the roads and solicited the support of government for the rehabilitation of the existing/major road as well as build alternative roads in and out of the estate for ease of movement by residents.
He also urged the government to assist the residents in the provision of other infrastructures such as hospitals, drainages, water supply, metering for electricity and improved security within the estate.
The Federal Housing Authority Estate in Lugbe was built some 30 years ago and currently accommodates over 70,000 different categories of federal civil servants working in the city centre.