By Oyibo Salihu
Lokoja
No fewer than 1,704 houses were destroyed by the 2012 flood disaster in Lokoja, Kogi State.
Deputy Governor Yomi Awoniyi, who disclosed this yesterday while reacting to a protest by those that illegally occupied the post flood housing estate established by the state government, said the estate had been sealed to quite the illegal occupants.
He said: “The state government has, today, sealed all the apartments in the estate. We are calling on genuine owners to present their letters of occupation before gaining entrance into the houses.
“Kogi state was one of the states badly affected by the 2012 flood. As a result of the devastation, the state government built 270 units of Post Flood Housing Estate. In Lokoja alone 1,704 houses were discovered after enumeration to have been affected.”
Awoniyi added that the state government received 241 applications from interested applicants to occupy the estate after the advertisement, noting that the remaining houses were allocated to the disable persons and some vulnerable people in the society after the close of application.
While noting that paucity of funds could not allow the state government to build flood houses in other affected local government, Awoniyi frowned upon the situation where genuine occupants in Lokoja could not access their buildings as against those who forcefully moved in and took possession.
He appealed to those with genuine allocation papers who could not take possession of the houses to come forward with their documents, assuring that government would continue to take the issues of providing succour and relief to those who are affected by floods.
In his remarks, the spokesman of the 2012 flood victims, Tunde Apasi, commended the state government and media houses for their prompt intervention, which he said had enabled them to take access of the houses in the estate.
