The government of Rivers State has issued a warning to all illegal occupants of the state government’s property
or face being prosecuted. The warning was issued by Mr. Emma Okah, the state Commissioner for Housing in the state capital, Port Harcourt, on Thursday, July 2, 2015.
According to PUNCH reports, Okah explained that he had given the illegal occupants a second notice so as to clear doubts as to whether or not the government was ready to take action against defaulters. He also said that the warning was to check the rising spate of invasion of government houses illegally and that the government would not stop at eviction but also proceed to prosecute offenders.
Okah revealed that recovery of these houses by the state government would begin within the next few weeks.
“These illegal occupants are insensitive and destructive. They cheat the state and the tax payers by not paying rent and in their viciousness, they vandalise public property without remorse. We owe a duty to sanitise our system in the spirit of the new vision of our state,” the commissioner added.
He asked the public to be careful about persons who fraudulently disguised as government officials to engage in the illegal sale of government houses. He also said that all those who were involved would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
He reiterated the Ministry of Housing’s readiness to tackle housing deficiency in the state keeping on line the vision of the state governmnent and Governor Nyesom Wike’s commitment to providing affordable houses for all income earners in the state.
