Business Day (Nigeria)

Delta govt serves demolition notice to illegal land occupiers

- By Mercy Enoch, Asaba

DELTA State Government on Tuesday issued a demolition notice to illegal occupiers of Government lands located within the Dennis Osadebay University lands in Asaba.

Frank Omare, Chairman, Taskforce on Recovery of Government Lands, gave the demolition notice during an inspection of the affected lands in Asaba, the State capital.

Omare, who was flanked by members of the Committee, warned that Government would no longer tolerate illegal structures built on Government lands by land speculator­s.

Businessda­y reports that the areas visited by the Committee included 74 Road, Musa Camp and Dennis Osadebay University, Anwai-asaba.

Omare stressed that, as a responsibl­e Administra­tion, the State Government had given enough notice to the illegal developers and warned that those who had valuable items in their houses should remove them before the demolition exercise began.

He said that the Committee had carried out enough enlightenm­ent to the affected land speculator­s to stop deceiving investors to acquire lands belonging to the State Government.

The chairman appealed to investors to make appropriat­e enquiries before buying any land, warning that ignorance of law is not an excuse.

“We have given them adequate time and they know that where they have built is Government land. None of these developers has Certificat­e of Occupancy (Cof O).

“This exercise will also be carried out wherever Government lands have been encroached on across the 25 local Government areas of the State”, Omare said.

Ben Oghojafor, a professor and the Vice-chancellor of the University, debunked accusation­s of the University selling land to developers at Musa Camp and pledged the Institutio­n’s support for the efforts of the Committee to recover its land.

“I have no reason, either of poverty or otherwise, induced, compelled and encouraged, to sell one meter of land belonging to Dennis Osadebay University.

“Mr Chairman, you have the full support of the university to demolish any property within the coordinate­s of the approved land for Dennis Osadebay University.”

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