Pioneer Civil Society Organization in the Nigeria Housing Industry, Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) has expressed dismay with dissatisfaction about a report published in one of Nigeria’s national dailies, Premium Times on how Mr President was misinformed to sign the bill on real estate regulation in Nigeria which has not passed through necessary legislative processes at both the House of Reps and the Senate.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Executive Director, Festus Adebayo on Sunday in Abuja.
While expressing his shock over the incident, Adebayo noted that HDAN was yet to understand why there was so much desperation on the part of some stakeholders to get the bill signed into law by Mr President, even when it has not gotten the necessary legislative nod.
“For us at HDAN, we have been monitoring the movement of the bill before it suddenly disappeared which prevented us from knowing how far the bill has gone. The last information we heard concerning such related bill was the passage of real estate regulation bill for FCT. We wondered how many interest groups are pushing for different bills that will serve their selfish interest rather than the overall interest of the sector under the real estate regulation bill”.
Adebayo commended Premium Times for the investigative report which has not been denied by clerk of the national Assembly.
“At various time, we have called for the regulation of the real estate sector for the purpose of protecting the integrity of the sector, promote professsionalism in the sector and protect both the buyers of real estate products investors and developers. From all indications, this bill they are trying to manipulate Mr President to sign will definitely not achieve the desired objectives we have just stated for the overall interest of the sector, says HDAN.
“HDAN is therefore calling for criminal investigation of those behind the bill that was wrongly pushed for Mr President assent.
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We are also calling the Hon Minister of Housing and Urban Development to intervene by setting up a committee that will have representatives of all professional bodies and Civil society to review the available bills for all inclusive bill that achieve the goal of professionals using the real estate business with clear rules of operations.
According to HDAN, the way out is to repackage the bill for the interest of all stakeholders and professions in the sector.
“We are using this opportunity to call on Nigerian Minister of Housing and Urban Development to urgently set up a committee that will look into the failed bill and address all salient areas for the overall interest of the sector.