…as Bureau of Community Communications hold two-day stakeholders engagement with landlords associations
- By Demola Atobaba, Ado-Ekiti
The Ekiti State Government says it is targeting to provide affordable housing system for residents to address arbitrary hike in house rents.
The Director General, Bureau of Community Communications, Mary Omotosho made the disclosure in Ado-Ekiti during a two-day Stakeholders Engagement with Chairmen of Ado-Ekiti Landlords Associations.
Omotosho explained that the stakeholders engagement is targeted towards providing decent housing system in the state that will protect tenants from exorbitant rent increases and ensure that landlords receive fair returns on their investments.
The DG, who decried the unchecked rent hikes affecting residents of the state, emphasized that the government of Biodun Oyebanji is working assiduously to prioritize the welfare of its citizens.
Her words: “House rent is skyrocketing in Ekiti State and this is telling on the people, even on the welfare of the people. The governor is taking care of the people but we don’t need estate agents to keep extorting them.
“We are driving towards having affordable and decent housing system in Ekiti State and it starts with these estate agents. We have called them with the landlords associations so that we can all agree on the best method and win-win situation where tenants will live well and the landlords will be happy with their rents.”
Speaking further, Omotosho emphasized that the meeting is a regular engagement with the landlords associations aimed at gathering feedbacks, improve service delivery to the people and review government impacts in various communities.
She noted that the engagement is to also ensure that Governor Oyebanji’s grassroots development programs and policies are truly enjoyed by the people adding that it will effectively address community issues and challenges so as to align government actions with their needs and concerns.
“The objective is to further engage the people at the grassroots to review our activities as government at the grassroots, know where we are with the people and know what needs to be done for the people. This is the practice of Governor Oyebanji as far as grassroots development is concerned because we will review what we have done with the aim of achieving more.
“We have a lot of community issues that has been raised before now because this meeting is what we do regularly. We have called the meeting to address such issues. We have broken it down into several sessions so that we are able to extract points that will be addressed by Mr. Governor.”
In an interview, Chairman of Ado local government, Bosun Osaloni described the engagement as the first of its kind in the state saying that Governor Oyebanji has continued to prioritize the needs of the people at the grassroots level.
He said: “We want to appreciate the governor for what he is doing in Ado local government and in Ekiti general. This is the first governor that is touching the lives of everybody. This meeting is the first of its kind. Since the state has been created, the government has not been meeting regularly with the landlords associations.
“We at the local government level are trying to commensurate the efforts of the state governor in the area of roads infrastructure, borehole drilling, solar installation, empowerment and personal needs.”
His counterpart from Ado Central LCDA, Toyin Ojo, while appreciating the governor for his impactful leadership appealed to the landlords and estate agents to understand the plight of residents and desist from arbitrary house rents.
According to him, “the landlords and estate agents should take it easy with our people. This is a challenging period in the country and everybody should contribute its quota because I believe this phase shall pass. My appeal to them is to take it easy with our people.”
In the same vein, Chairmen of Ado North and Ado West LCDAs, Olatokunbo Gbadamosi and Bolu Aladesanmi lauded Governor Oyebanji for providing a seamless collaboration between the local governments and the state government for more interventions, particularly at the grassroots level.
The two-day engagement, which featured interactive sessions also had in attendance; Technical Advisor on Road Infrastructure, Tope Fatukasi;Technical Advisor on Electricity, Philip Atere and Director General, Homeland Intelligence Agency, Dotun Adetuberu.
Others include; SSAs and SAs in the Bureau of Community Communications as well as State Executives of Estate Rent and Commission Agents Association led by its Chairman, Adeoko Oluwasumi.
