The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, has lamented that over 40 per cent of the Nigerian Army personnel were without housing accommodation.
He stated this in Abuja on Thursday during the commissioning of the newly built Bola Ahmed Tinubu Barracks in Asokoro, Abuja.
He said, “Your Excellency may recall that on the assumption of the office of Chief of Army Staff, one of the critical issues at the table before you was the fact that about 40 per cent of Nigerian Army personnel are not accommodated. The project being commissioned today is only phases one and two of the original plan.”
Lit.-Gen. Oluyede said the new barracks contain a total of 614 accommodations.
He said, “In specific terms, the project comprises 16 Major General Quarters, 17 Beginner General Quarters, 3 by 20 Family Major to Colonel Quarters, 30 by 20 Family Lieutenant to Captain Quarters, and 60 by 30 Family Senior Non-Commissioned Officers Quarters. Others are 6 by 30 Family Corporal and Below Quarters, 40 by 21 Corporal and Below Quarters. These translate to accommodation for 614 personnel consisting of 170 officers and 444 soldiers and their families.
“Also provided in these barracks are three worship centres, sports facilities, and a powerhouse. The external infrastructure includes the perimeter fence with 15 entrance gates, gatehouses, umbrellas, groundwater supply facilities, access road networks, and hard and soft landscaping, all constructed to the highest standards. Although this seems huge, with the scale of accommodation deficits the Nigerian Army faces in Abuja, this is only but just a drop in the ocean.”
