Residents Urge Govt. To Make Use Of NITEL Building In Ife

RESIDENTS of Parakin, Eleyele in Ile-Ife, Osun State, have called on both Federal and State Government to utilise the abandoned Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL) building in the area.

The building, according to findings by OSUN DEFENDER, has been abandoned since 2004 with telecommunication equipment worth millions of naira rotten away since the privatisation of the company.

OSUN DEFENDER visited the building on Wednesday and observed that it has been overgrown with weeds.

According to some of the residents who spoke with the medium, the building might serve as hideout for miscreants, stating that it is posing threat to the community.

It would be recalled that the military administration of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari in 1985 created NITEL, merging the telecommunications unit of P&T with NET while the postal unit of P&T became NIPOST.

However, the privatisation of the NITEL was completed in December 2014 after the financial bid was opened in October 2014 by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

OSUN DEFENDER learnt that the Nigerian government has formally handed over the assets of NITEL to new owner NATCOM Consortium.

According to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), NATCOM had paid the remaining 70% of the USD252.25m total bid price for NITEL and its mobile arm M-Tel, having been announced as the preferred buyer in December 2014.

However, OSUN DEFENDER learnt that the NITEL building in Ile-Ife has been sold to an indigene of the town who is a politician.

A resident of the community, Daniel Adefare, in a letter addressed to politicians in Ife Federal Constituency, said urgent action was needed to be taken on the building.

Adefare called on the Deputy Governor of Osun State, Prince Kola Adewusi, Senator Babajide Omoworare, political parties and Ife Traditional Council to see to how the building can be put to use.

The letter partly read: “For years, many properties belonging to the Federal Government have been suffering from either outright abandonment, or underutilisation, thereby constituting danger to lives and property.

“Apart from the perceived dangers, most of these buildings are very much suitable for being converted into other use other than the purposes for which they were originally conceived.

“For the sake of posterity, it is high time politicians in Ile-Ife use their positions to ensure that the abandoned building of the Nigeria Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) is put into proper use.

“I will beg the authorities involved to use the building for another thing before the building attract criminals and miscreants who may use it as hideouts for planning criminal activities.

“The building however can be converted to hostel, office complex for government agencies like Nigeria Immigration Service, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Centre for Culture, NDLEA, etc or even Ifẹ Mall before total collapse.”