North East Development Commission, NEDC, has on Tuesday laid the foundation in Jalingo, Taraba State capital to construct a 500 mass housing estate for the North East insurgency internal displaced persons.
Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State who performed the laying ceremony at the proposed estate site thanked the commission for bringing succour to the people while also urging it to help the state in the area of roads construction to ease the transportation.
Earlier, the managing director NEDC Muhamed Alkali in his opening address said the mandate of the commission included rehabilitation and reconstruction of destroyed homes and commercial premises of citizens in the region.
He said, “You may also wish to be informed that the stock of houses in the North-East region before the insurgency was about 4 million, out of which over 500,000 structures (houses and commercial premises) were destroyed or irreparably damaged.
“Even before the insurgency, there was a housing deficit in all the states of the region. Therefore, the insurgency only further aggravated the situation.
“In all of this, Borno State being the epicentre of the crisis is worse affected with the largest number of Internally Displaced Persons.”
