22nd August, 2011
Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, has warning land speculators to desist from further encroaching on the acquired large expanse of land earmarked for construction of houses under the Iba New Town Development Scheme in Ijagemo area of Iba Local Council Development Area of the state.
Governor Fashola, who was responding to a plea by the Head of Bada Family of Ijagemo, Chief Akibu Alade Salau Bada, to spare the illegal structures already built on the government acquired land, promised that the structures would not be demolished but warned against further encroachment on the land. “The State government will not tolerate any situation where the waiver given to those who have already developed properties on the acquired land will encourage land speculators to engage in indiscriminate selling of the land.
“The surveyors from the state government will come around and see how to incorporate the encroached portions into government’s plan for the Iba New Town Development so that the construction process can be set in motion,†he stated.
Fashola has therefore ordered the Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Bosun Jeje, who was present during the inspection, to liaise with his Physical Planning counterpart to set the boundaries for the existing encroachments and draw the map which should be brought back to him for approval. He told the people of the area that he was visiting them as part of the fulfilment of his electioneering promises to provide affordable houses which had necessitated his inspection of the vast expanse of government acquired land for a housing scheme, adding that his visit had also enabled him to see the state of roads in Ikotun, Ijegun and Ijagemo, which would enable government plan adequately for it.
Earlier, the Head of Bada Family of Ijagemo, Chief Bada, had appealed to the governor to consider, on compassionate grounds, the several property owners in the area, who had constructed on the acquired land several years ago.
The construction of the Iba New Town Development Scheme, which is being handled by VAN OORD Nigeria Limited, is expected to provide units of affordable houses to many residents of the state in line with the electioneering promise of the governor to that effect.
—Kazeem Ugbodaga