The demolition of shops and houses that encroached on the master plan of the Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos, has started receiving intense criticism from property owners and residents of the area.They alleged that the officials of Lagos State Government deliberately spared some buildings earlier marked in 2009 for demolition and are now planning to demolish those that marked.Ago Palace Way had hitherto been in a state of disrepair, making transport on the road leading to Ago Okota difficult because some buildings have encroached on the master plan of the area.To solve the problem, PUNCH METRO learnt that the state government, through the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning, resolved to demolish the buildings to pave the way for road expansion.Although the expansion project started in 2009, it was abandoned after a while. In 2011 the government revisited the plan and marked more buildings in the area for demolition.One of the residents of the community, Mr. Ahmed Akeem, said when the road expansion came to fore in 2009 it was a welcome development.He however regretted that the recent selective demolition had negated the overall objective which the road expansion was meant to achieve.Akeem said, In 2009, we were made to understand that all buildings to the right were to be pulled down as they were erected in the centre of the road.But after much deliberations and meetings between the affected people and officials of the ministry, it was agreed that 19 buildings would be demolished.In June this year we suddenly saw officials of the ministry marking other buildings on the left side of the road including my house. But these buildings were not included in the 2009 arrangement.Akeem said when those affected by the new plan approached the officials of the ministry, they insisted that the buildings were part of the plan.He said they had accepted their fate but were surprised that most of the houses marked for demolition in 2009 were no longer in the plan.Akeem said, We were not even given demolition notices as it was applicable to those whose houses were marked in 2009. Besides, the officials of the Ministry of Works ordered us to demolish our structures ourselves. This raised suspicion about their claim that our buildings encroached on the road.Another property owner, Mr. Ajibola Dosunmu, said he could not understand how the ministries arrived at the action.When construction work commenced on the road in June, we saw some people marking our buildings for demolition without any prior notice, Dosunmu said.Another resident, Mr. Stanley Nzekwe, accused the officials of acting out a script and urged Governor Babatunde Fashola to act fast so that the aim of the project would not be defeated in the long run.These so called government officials have turned this road project to a money-making venture to the detriment of people whose buildings have not encroached on the road. There is no fair play in this whole thing, Nzekwe said.However, the Director of Information, Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, Mr. Bola Fagunwa, said the residents were issued notices.Fagunwa said, Due notices were given to all owners of buildings and structures affected by the right of way. The issue of self demolition was a fallout of the meeting held with the affected persons where it was agreed that anyone capable of undertaking the removal should do so.It was not a matter of compulsion. What we did was to encourage those affected to remove the obstruction on the right of way so that when bulldozers are used things dont get messier.He also said because the road was not straight, it appeared as if some people were been favoured, adding that the ministry had to factor in provision of high tension wire.Getting an alignment to accommodate the PHCN pylons, which is an important public facility, should not be interpreted to mean favouring some people over others. The ministry has put the highest level of integrity into the expansion of the road, Fagunwa said.When our correspondent visited the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Oluwatoyin Ayinde, he was not at his office and he neither picked his calls nor responded to the text message sent to his phone..
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