Residents Protest As FG Hands Over Bauchi NHP Housing To Nigerian Air Force

By Khalid Idris Doya 

Despite residents' outrage, the federal government on Wednesday officially handed over the 270 housing units of the National Housing Programme (NHP) along Ningi Road in Bauchi State to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

Correspondents' Watch reports that the housing project, initiated in 2016 under the administration of late former President Muhammadu Buhari, was designed to provide affordable accommodation for civil servants and low- to middle-income earners across Nigeria.

Confirming the development, a senior official of the Federal Ministry of Housing in Bauchi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the handover was led by a representative of the Minister of Housing held at housing premises.

"The housing units have indeed been handed over to the Nigerian Air Force. The houses are no longer under the ministry," the official stated.

However, residents currently occupying the estate expressed anger and disappointment over the decision, who claimed to have filled expression of interest (EOI) forms and expressed shock with the development.

Speaking to journalists, Muhammad Kabir, Secretary of the Residents' Committee, lamented Air Force personnel moving into the premises and ordered them to vacate.

"We woke up to see Air Force officers occupying this place and telling us to leave. We are pleading with the federal government to reconsider, because we have nowhere to go. These houses were built to help low- income earners Nigerians, not the military, which already has its own housing schemes."

Kabir vowed to challenge the decision in court, "We will not break the law, but we have every right to seek legal redress. The NHP was never meant to be handed over to an institution like the Air Force," he said.

He further described the situation as unjust, stressing that some occupants had lived in the estate for up to six years and deserved fairness.

Recalled that the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development recently issued a final eviction notice to the occupants, describing them as "illegal settlers" and giving them 48 hours to leave the premises.

The residents, however, appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Minister of Housing, Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, to urgently intervene and protect the original beneficiaries of the project.

Efforts to obtain comments from Arc. Nwamadu Herbertson, the Federal Controller of Housing in Bauchi, was unsuccessful.