Abuja estates residents grumble over poor infrastructure

Before any settlement, town or community could be termed developed, there must be infrastructural facilities in place. The Federal Capital Territory, being the seat of government  is supposed to be highly developed and boast  of infrastructures for its residents. To make the city a model one, successive FCT Administrations  had introduced various policies aimed at […]

Before any settlement, town or community could be termed developed, there must be infrastructural facilities in place.
The Federal Capital Territory, being the seat of government  is supposed to be highly developed and boast  of infrastructures for its residents.
To make the city a model one, successive FCT Administrations  had introduced various policies aimed at bridging the gap which include the establishment of  the Satellite Towns Development Agency (STDA).
Similarly, the FCT Administration introduced the land swap policy in order to further bring development to the people through the involvement of private investors. 
But despite these efforts, residents especially those living in the suburbs  are lacking amenities like electricity, pipe borne water, access roads,  schools and hospitals amongst others.
One of the estates lacking   access roads in the territory is  Sunnyvale Homes  estate in Dakwo district.
The residents under the aegis  Sunnyvale Homes Residents Association told Daily Trust  they have  been finding it difficult driving in and out of the estate for some time now.
Sunnyvale Homes Residents Association publicity secretary Seun Awofisoye  told Daily Trust that the  current state of the access road leading to Sunnyvale Homes and many other estates in Dakwo district are nothing to write home about.
He said the estate with about  1200 housing units and 5,000 residents is also not connected to public water service.
He, therefore, sought the attention of the FCT Administration towards its speedy construction to save them from the daily agony  of traffic hold ups and bumpy rides the roads pose to them.
Daily Trust  gathered that other estates like Kabusa Gardens estate and Valencia estate within the area are also facing similar condition,raising  the question on what the FCT Administration  had been doing in terms  of extending infrastructure  to these estates.
Lugbe resident along airport road also complained of traffic congestion along the intersection connecting the  Lugbe Federal Housing estate to the Umaru Musa Yar’adua  expressway.
 A resident  Paulinus   Eze said that the daulisation of the express way to six lanes to ease congestion on the airport express way ought to be extended to the road connecting the vast estate to the main expressway.
“We were all happy when the expressway was extended to six lanes and that drastically reduced the traffic gridlock on that express way. But  the contractor  failed to extend  the main link  road  that connect the estate to the expressway hence the daily agony of gridlock we experience here,’’ she said.
But the FCT Director of  Mass Housing,  Engr. Umar Jibril  told Daily Trust that in most cases, cries of lack of infrastructure  in many estates being directed at the FCT Administration, are usually the responsibilities of the private developers who built them in the first place.
Engr. Jibril explained that the mass housing project is a double way thing which requires the developer partner to provide the entire internal infrastructure within the estate, no matter how big or small.
He said by the same arrangement,  the FCT Administration is to provide the secondary infrastructure to the estates.
He said that he had been overwhelmed by complaints from off takers complaining of lack of good roads,  drainage and water supply within the estates they reside which are the responsibilities of the developers as part of the agreement they had with the government.
“All allocated lands for mass housing, the developer concerned is expected to provide all internal infrastructures. They collect money from these off -takers and I have got complaints from some of these off-takers concerning this,’’ he said. 
Engr.  Jibri, however, admitted that the FCT Administration has not totally meet up with the secondary infrastructure it is expected to provide, assuring that the FCTA is intensifying efforts to see that the FCT get the best in terms of infrastructural provision.