RESIDENTS LAMENT NON-NUMBERING OF HOUSES IN YENAGOA

ALMOST twelve years after the creation of Bayelsa State, residential and commercial buildings in Yenagoa the capital city are yet to be numbered making it a difficult task for visitors and courier firms to locate their destinations.
This lack of properly defined street names and numbered houses for easy identification and location has became a lamentation for residents as they lament that this does not befit the status of Yenagoa as a state capital.
Although the State House of Assembly had two years ago passed a motion calling on the state government to commence the naming and numbering of streets and houses in the capital city, the executive arm has not done anything to remedy the situation.
Presently, it is a Herculean task for a first time visitor to the capital city to locate his destination on account of the absence of street names and house numbers occasioned by the haphazard way buildings were erected.
Vanguard findings revealed that because of the absence of street names and house numbers many residents have resorted to using landmark features to identify their abode whenever they are giving out their addresses to would be visitors.
Some residents who spoke to Vanguard described as embarrassing and sad the situation where the state capital does not have properly defined street names and numbered houses for easy identification and location as obtained in cities all over the world.
Others blamed the situation on the Yenagoa city council which they claimed did not leave up to its primary responsibility by failing to name and number streets and houses under its jurisdiction.
They lamented that the council could have used street naming and selling of number tags as a veritable source of revenue and called on the state government to take over the task describing the marking of street names and house numbers as a road map to development.
Efforts to get the comment of the state commissioner for Lands and Housing, Chief Ayakeme Whisky as well as that of the Executive Secretary, Capital City Development Authority, Chief Amatale Turner proved abortive as they were not in their offices.