The Ogun State government is to begin paying compensation to owners of properties demolished by the administration of former Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun to pave way for the expansion of some road projects across the state.
Penpushing reports that,the Commissioner for Works, Engr. Ade Akinsanya, made this known, adding that Governor Dapo Abiodun, has approved that the compensation payment should commence to alleviate the sufferings of those affected.
The Commissioner added that, it is recalled that Amosun embarked on massive demolition of properties across the state in his desire to expand some roads to as much as 8-lanes without paying compensation to affected owners, adding that, it was double jeopardy as many of the roads were abandoned midway through the construction process, while others did not take off at all.
Penpushing further reports that Akinsanya, said the governor has approved the compensation payment, which will be in phases, noting that the demolitions carried out by Amosun’s administration were unnecessary,but it ended up compounding the problems being faced by the present government.
The Commissioner explained that the state government now has billions of compensation claims to contend with in addition to looking for another huge sums of money to complete the abandoned roads, adding that the Abiodun administration inherited outstanding debt of N202billion from the Amosun government on roads alone.
Penpushing also reports that, Akinsanya said the state government has decided on the policy of no demolition in its project execution, except where necessary and unavoidable,stating that the last administration had earmarked some houses for demolition preparatory to the rehabilitation of Kemta-Somorin road in Abeokuta, adding that the project is nearing completion without any demolition carried out.
“Our road design and construction is such that we try to avoid demolition. It is actual not necessary to demolish while constructing roads, unless it is actually unavoidable.The same thing applies to bridge construction. Most of the bridges constructed by that regime were a waste of resources. For instance, on the entire stretch of the 19kilometers Atan-Lusada-Agbara road has only one bridge. And the length is short,” he said.
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