Ogun Residents Protests Illicit Wreckage Of Over 50 Homes
On Tuesday, residents of Sidipon Okepa, a neighborhood near the Governor’s Office in Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, protested what they characterized as the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development’s violent and illegal demolition of their homes.
Members of the community who arrived at the Governor’s Office around 10 a.m. were armed with placards bearing messages such as “Gov Abiodun, save us from the officials of the physical planning and urban development,” “Our lives are now in danger at Sidipon,” and “Gov Abiodun, save us from the officials of the physical planning and urban development.” “Our heritage is being taken away from us without our consent, and we can no longer sleep with our eyes closed,” among other things.
During the protest, Mr Oluwadairo Seye, Chairman of the Community Development Association of Sidipon Okepa, told journalists that the residents of the community were still reeling from the tragic occurrence that occurred on Friday, April 1st, 2022.
“This incident happened last Friday, April 1st, and we merely observed state government officials from the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, along with some security and touts, shooting intermittently after which they started demolishing our properties,” Mr Oluwadairo explained.
“What made it even more unexpected is that we’ve always met with these state government officials, and we still met with them about a week before they came around last Friday to demolish people’s houses.”
“We were urged to hold off on any additional development on the land until the government produces a plan for the area, which we have done as well.” We sensed something was amiss, which is why we’ve arrived at the Governor’s Office to inform our governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, of the occurrence.
“This is a governor who has never broken his commitment not to demolish people’s homes; even fences that were destroyed during road building were restored before the projects were finished.” We are deeply aggrieved and wounded by this heinous act, which has impacted over 50 properties. We sincerely hope and pray that Governor Abiodun will assist us.”
While apologizing to the residents for the demolition, Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Townplanner Tunji Odunlami explained that the exercise was carried out because the owners of properties on the said land refused to listen to the government’s directive to stop further development on the land until the government releases its layout.
“The exercise was nothing but demolition of unlawful structures,” said Town Planner Odunlami. “It’s part of the government’s move to control haphazard building and get rid of slums in the state.” The directive was that no development should take place in that region until the government released the layout, which is nearly complete, but there has been a breach of the agreement we established with the community.
“Before we did this exercise, we flew our drones and discovered that individuals had continued to develop on the land.” This administration’s goal is to create beautiful, smart, well-planned communities across the state, not slums. You can see how close that location is to the Governor’s Office, and how well-planned adjacent communities like Hillcrest and Obasanjo Hilltop are.
“The government has no intention of taking over your land; on the contrary, we don’t want haphazard structures and slums, and as soon as we finish the layout for the area, we’ll give it to you so that development along that axis follows the plan.”
Later, the Commissioner promised that he would meet with community representatives again to look into other issues highlighted during the demonstration.
