Zuma Estate: Another failed mass housing project

The Zuma Housing Estate located near the popular Zuma rock has since been abandoned and speculations regarding its status are growing by the day.The estate comprising, hundreds of units of two and three-bedroom bungalows has not been utilized by the state government after the departure of Kure’s administration, giving room for speculations that politicians have […]

The Zuma Housing Estate located near the popular Zuma rock has since been abandoned and speculations regarding its status are growing by the day.
The estate comprising, hundreds of units of two and three-bedroom bungalows has not been utilized by the state government after the departure of Kure’s administration, giving room for speculations that politicians have frustrated and killed the project.
Daily Trust findings showed how the estate has been hijacked by various conflicting interests in the state who introduced policies which have since driven away investors and developers that were approached to purchase the houses from the Niger State government.
One source has it that some of the houses were bought by a private developer who later sold some of them to individuals as such some of the houses were fully paid for and are being occupied by the owners.
A beneficiary who pleaded anonymity informed our reporter that he had obtained, filled and made payment for a house but he did not hear anything about the house.
Another source said when government put up the houses for sale, some people paid fully for some of the houses, others made part payments. According to the source, those who made full payments were given the houses while the allocations of those who made part payments were revoked. That some of the houses were sold to a company which in turn sold to individuals.
When our reporter visited the estate recently, one of the residents, a woman said a company her husband is working with bought seven units of the houses for its staff which they have paid in installments through an arrangement with the company.
“The company bought the seven units of the houses for their drivers and my husband is among them. That’s how we got a house in this estate. We have been here for a long time,” she said.
Some of the houses as observed by our reporter are still not completed. In fact, they have started collapsing. One of the residents who took our reporter round the estate said three of those uncompleted houses have collapsed within the last three years.
One feature of the estate is the absence of basic infrastructure like water, electricity and drainages. A resident of the estate said during the rainy season, some areas become flooded while some areas become slippery making movement especially for children risky.
“Most of the people who have cars whose houses are located in these muddy and slippery areas of the estate park their vehicles where the place is at a higher ground to avoid having them messed up,” he said.
Another feature of the estate is the presence of illegal occupants in the houses which our reporter learnt were given the houses by one of the residents whose father was one of the contractors who built the houses.
A source who pleaded anonymity took our reporter to the man’s house but did not meet him. He said all sorts of people are given houses in the estate by the man raising concern about security of residents who are legally occupying their houses.
Findings at the vigilante office located in the estate showed that crime is gradually increasing in the estate as according to the source, sometime ago, a thief attempted to steal a resident’s car but was caught.
Residents of the estate complained of lack of electricity and potable water as they fetch water from a reservoir located at the far end of the estate close to the Kaduna road. Our reporter sighted people mainly women and children fetching water from the reservoir.Govt has no details
When contacted, the Niger State Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Dr. Peter Sarki said the administration of Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu took over the project from the immediate past government of Engineer Abdulkadir Kure as an abandoned project.
He said the project had reached 80 percent level of completion with zero-level of infrastructure, adding that the estate was among projects the report of Justice Maiyaki commission of inquiry asked the present government to take over.
It was upon the commission’s report that the state government contacted the contractor who told the state government that the amount of work he did was commensurate to the money he collected for the project, he said.
The commissioner said, “I must confess to you, we don’t have the details. We don’t know how much the contract was awarded by the previous administration.”
According to him, government decided to sell the housing estate to individuals, groups or a cooperate organization taking note of 50 people that had already fully paid for their units of houses as well as 66 other individual buyers that had made deposits of various sums of money.
He said, “We allocated to about 50 people that paid in full and about 66 people had made some deposits for the houses as it is under mortgage arrangement.”
Sarki said after an intensive debate on the fate of the abandoned project, the state government decided that since it hadn’t sufficient money to fund the project to completion, decided to dispose it.
According to him, when the money needed to complete the project was calculated, government felt it was wiser to dispose it as it is.
Based on this, he said government in 2009 advertised for interested buyers to come forward for negotiation and eight organizations came forward with various offers, the highest was N750 million. But when asked to come forward for sealing up the deal, none of the organizations turned up, hence the need to re-advertise.
The commissioner explained that while making frantic effort to dispose the estate, the interest of those that made complete payment and those that made deposits will be adequately be taken care. It had been agreed that the 50 people that had paid in full will retain their houses as part of the conditions to whoever is taking the estate finally.
He said, “In the state executive council meeting, the council approved that whoever wants to buy the site, it’s agreed among other conditions that the 50 or so who have fully paid their money will be allowed to retain their houses, except if they don’t want while the 66 others that made deposits will have their money refunded.”
Sarki said Aso Savings and Loans and AIS came forward with offers, adding that this time it was agreed that among the potential buyers only the first to make a deposit will be considered irrespective of the difference involved in the amount offered.
Aso Savings and Loans emerged as the successful buyer of the entire estate having been the first organization to make deposit.