Lagos – The Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Housing on Wednesday promised to look into the financing of the Lagos HOMS Project, which is designed to provide accommodation for its teeming population.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (Lagos HOMS) was initiated by the former governor of the state, Mr Babatunde Fashola, to provide affordable houses for residents.
It encourages First-Time-Buyer (FTB) residents of Lagos State to purchase decent and affordable homes through the provision of accessible mortgage finance.
The Chairman of the House Committee, Mr Olanrewaju Layode, said during a visit to project sites in Igando that he was displeased with the level of work done by some contractors so far.
He said the contractors painted the exterior of the buildings, giving residents the impression they were completed or nearing completion when that was not the case.
“If we have paid 80 per cent of the fund, I don’t know how the contractors want to explain this.
The outside walls have been painted, whereas, the work inside is far from completion.
“With what we have seen here, we discovered that most of the contractors are working on the exterior parts of the houses and left the interior parts.
“We will invite them to the House with the New Towns Development Authority (NTDA) to defend the money they have collected.
“I cannot say that what they have done is okay, but we will invite the contractors,” he said.
The chairman said the contractors must justify the tax payers’ money given to them.
According to him, all the contractors handling the projects at Igando would be summoned to the House for explanation and the way forward.
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Layode, however, said that the government would be advised to pay some other contractors who had worked beyond the percentage of their mobilisation.
Some other committee members, who also spoke, commended such contractors for the work they had done.
The chairman said the committee would facilitate completion of the 338 buildings spread across 24 sites in the state under Lagos HOMS for the good of residents.
Meanwhile, the site engineer at the Igando Lagos HOMS from NTDA, Mr Idris Ojurongbe, said the project had 41 blocks of 12 flats each, and they were being constructed by different contractors.
Ojurongbe said 20 of the buildings were 95 complete and would be ready in the next one month.
NAN reports that the committee also visited a massive housing project in Egan-Igando being supervised by the state Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.
Mr Bolatito Dosunmu, the site engineer at Egan-Igando from the Ministry of Works, said the project was abandoned between 2001 and 2006, but was resuscitated in 2013.
Dosunmu told the committee members that the buildings were re-awarded to a new set of contractors and that some of the buildings were demolished because they had failed.
NAN reports that the committee commenced its two-week tour of the projects on Feb. 3.
It has visited project sites in Surulere, Ijora Badia, Oyingbo, Mushin, Gbagada, Ilupeju, Omole 1 and 2, Oko Oba, Akanimodo, Agbowa, Amuwo-Odofin and Igbogbo among others. (NAN)
