Abuja – December 1, 2023 – Viewpoint Housing News.
Concern have been raised by locals and business owners in Kara on the Lagos-Ibadan Motorway over the possibility of an upsurge in insecurity following the Ogun State Government’s recent demolition of the area’s shanties and improvised buildings.
Some of the speakers asserted that they just paid N12,000 to state government agents for the buildings and stores and that they had not received any warning notices from the government.
Farook Akintunde, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Environment, reportedly said that the practise was carried out after the street sellers’ prior 21-day notice to leave the area expired.
Funmi, a business owner, bemoaned the fact that the destruction had left some people without a place to live. “I packed my loads away from there before they demolished the shops,” she said. Numerous stores were severely destroyed, and some of them were left without anywhere to go. Some of them persisted in begging the administration to merely let them pack their things, but they were turned down. Although most Yoruba stores were destroyed, the Hausa people are the ones who have been left homeless, she said.
Baba Esan, the Baale of River Valley in Berger, warned that the demolition impact would cause a rise in robberies and unrest along the Lagos-Ibadan Motorway, as was previously observed.
“There were never homes here; some of the houses that some people built may be illegal,” he said. The government’s performance was poor as they demolished the building without taking the occupants’ needs into account.
“The rate of insecurity will rise as a result of the individuals and store owners being displaced. By 8 p.m., some persons choose to remain by the bridge rather than go about the street and conduct various crimes. It is inevitable for all those robbers to get back to the highway.
“The motorway might change over the next two months.” All these sites will become shrubs in the next three months, and the government will continue to tell lies about having cleaned the destroyed regions with millions of naira. Nigeria does not have an excellent government, he declared.
“We recently paid ‘permit’ to the government agents but they still demolished all these places,” stated another vendor, Olayemi. Here, traders must spend a minimum of N12,000 year only to protect their products.
Upon being contacted, Rotimi Oduniyi, the press officer for the Ministry of Environment, stated that the state government will tidy the entire region to ease people’s minds and that the demolition would lessen the level of insecurity in certain places.
Those structures were built unlawfully, It’s not like the government is treating them badly. Markets and shantytowns are not such locations. They created a problem that no responsible government will ignore. Instead of using those locations as lavatories, it is about their moving to an appropriate area. The people of that neighbourhood faced additional security challenges as a result of their presence. In order to give people peace of mind as they pass certain sites, the state administration will clean them all up,” Oduniyi asserted.
