Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Monday assured that none of the buildings on the corridor of the Circular Road in Ibadan which is under construction would be demolished.
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Makinde gave the assurance while addressing hundreds of property owners who besieged the state secretariat at Agodi in Ibadan, protesting what was seen as an impending demolition.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that affected property owners have been staging peaceful protests in Ibadan since Wednesday.
NAN also reports that the state government had informed the public that the administration of Abiola Ajimobi extended the Circular Road corridor setback from 150 meters to 500 meters.
This information had subsequently made officials of the state Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development to begin marking all structures on the road corridor for enumeration.
Makinde, while addressing the protesters, explained that it was the Sen. Rasheed Ladoja administration, which initially acquired 150 meters (75 meters right and 75 meters left)
for the road in 2006.
He added that the administration of the late Abiola Ajimobi 2018 acquired and gazetted an additional 350 meters for the road.
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The governor said the marking of properties outside the initial 150 meters was mainly to know the number of affected structures.
”But this was not for demolition of property,” he insisted.
Makinde however assured the protesters that further enumeration would be done in conjunction with the communities.
He said all already existing buildings outside the initial 150 meters acquired for the Circular Road project would be integrated.
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The governor, however, warned that nobody should begin the erection of new structures on the remaining acquired corridor, which is 425 meters right and 425 meters left.
“But, from now, don’t start laying house foundation within the corridor because we must plan the place,” he said.
Speaking earlier, two of the property owners, Mr. Niyi Fasoye and Mr. Azeez Olaide, appealed to the governor not to acquire 500 meters.
”If you do this, more than 400,000 property owners will become homeless.”
Fasoye urged the state government to limit the road setback to 150 meters, as gazetted by the administration of Sen. Ladoja in 2006.
Olaide said all affected property owners on the road corridor had been in a state of panic and living in fear since the marking of buildings began.
”We only want to appeal to Gov. Makinde to prevail on officials assigned for the markings to stop this,” he said.
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