Shop owners, residents groan as Ogun demolishes buildings

Ogun State Government’s buildozers demolished all buildings bordering Imepe-Ejirin Road, Ijebu Ode on Sunday, a move that shop owners and residents of the area have condemned.

Even though many of the affected residents and traders our correspondent spoke with did not see anything wrong with the road expansion, which the government had said necessitated the demolition, they said the information about the exercise was inadequate.

On Monday when our correspondent visited Ijebu-Ode, many residents were seen either repairing their shops or salvaging what they could from the ruins.

None of the buildings affected was demolished completely.

It was noticed that some of the structures bore numbers indicating the extent of demolition that would be done on them. Depending on how close they were to the road, some bore 0.8m and some as much as 3m.

But this was an issue some residents expressed anger about.

Alhaji Surajudeen’s Adebanjo’s house was marked 1.8m but the bulldozers had damaged the building beyond 1.8m as our correspondent measured 2.5m.

Adebanjo said, “I don’t think there is anything wrong with the government’s project. But if there is going to be demolition of houses, the workers should adhere strictly to the prescribed distance.

“The way it is now, I will have to rebuild the walls and completely re-roof the building.”

Adebanjo said he inherited the building from his father 33 years ago.

According to him, there was no clear information dissemination prior to the demolition.

“Why did they decide to carry out the demolition on Sunday when most people were in church? I am ready to go to court if I am not compensated for the excessive damage that has been done to my house,” he said.

A shop owner in an affected building beside Adebanjo’s, Banji Tobi, said he barely could pack his belongings out of his aluminium fabrication shop before it was demolished.

Asked if the government gave any prior notice, Tobi said he was informed of the impending demolition three weeks ago.

He said, “That was when they came to mark the houses that would be affected. The government officials did not really say what time the houses would be demolished.

“They only came and said the markings were for demolition. The problem is how to get another shop now.”

PUNCH Metro learnt that the affected area, which is from the township entrance terminating at Ibadan Motor park, have the highest concentration of shops in Ijebu Ode.

Another shop owner, Oladele Nofiu, insisted there was inadequate information dissemination about the exercise.

 “This particular shop was marked two months ago, but we had no idea they were going to come yesterday. Of course, we knew they were coming for the demolition and we don’t think that is a bad idea since it is for the good of the community. But we just think they should have told us when they would come,” he said.

At 5, Imepe Road, some residents were seen removing the shutters on their building.

They were a little luckier, a tenant, Samson Olalekan, explained.

He said, “When the demolition crew came they realised that the shops on the ground floor still had goods, they left and told us they would come for demolition after the goods had been removed.

“We have been able to pack our property now. What we are doing now is to use sledgehammer to break the walls and floors in the same line of demolition on the street. We decided to do that so that the bulldozer would not do too much damage to the building.”

The Commissioner for Works, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite, said those who were complaining about the project were “only being mischievous.”

According to him, prior notice had been given many months ago about the impending demolition.

Adegbite told our correspondent on the telephone on Monday, “The law specifies prior notice of 30 days but we did more than that. Because of this project, Governor Ibikunle Amosun has visited Ijebu Ode three times to let the people know government’s intention.

“Yesterday (Sunday), I was there with the engineers, moving from house to house to plead with those who had not complied with the evacuation order. Interestingly, many of the residents had complied.

“Also, I seriously doubt that any engineer will go beyond the prescribed distance because they are experts in the field. Those numbers written on the walls, which the residents thought have been exceeded, may not be referring to the demolition point.”

Punch