Labour Decries N100bn Annual Loss from Neglected National Asset

The leadership of Precision Electrical and Related Equipment Senior Staff Association (PERESSA), has cried out against the massive loss the country is recording, following continuous abandonment and decay of national assets across the country.

This is just as he called on National Assembly to come out with a law that will tag abandonment of public property as a punishable offence to save both federal and state governments from wasting public funds on fresh projects at a time when the country is going through hard times.

The President, PERESSA, Comrade Rufus Olusesan, in a media chat yesterday expressed displeasure over the rate at which politicians are pursuing the construction of new projects without being mindful of the maintenance of existing or abandoned ones across the country.

According to him, with a loss of over N100 billion every year over abandoned monumental infrastructure across the country, our National Assembly should come out with a law that would make it a punishable offence for any new regime, irrespective of which political party candidates that emerged in any election, there should should be continuity of governance. Lawmakers should come out with a law which will ensure that whoever takes over as new president or governor, must not start a new project without completing or maintenance of property left behind left by the past regime.”

Moreover, Olusesan called on the government to address housing deficits while converting abandoned monuments like the old secretariat at Obalende, Lagos and other states into accommodation for civil servants whereby the government will be earning revenue through payment of rent by those occupants rather than allowing those places to become hideouts for miscreants and criminals who are using those buildings as hideouts.

Olusesan, therefore, advised the government to seek partnerships with capable and reliable private hands to convert that infrastructure into revenue-yielding projects.