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Abule Ado residents condemn government’s planned take over of community

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Abule Ado residents condemn government's planned take over of community

Residents of the Abule Ado community have condemned the plan by the Federal Government to acquire their community which is situated in the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State that was devastated by an explosion on Sunday.

Twenty persons, including the Administrator and workers of the Bethlehem Girls College, lost their lives to the explosion, which also destroyed over 50 buildings.

While the corpses were recovered from the rubble of the collapsed buildings, the fire which followed the explosion ravaged the community and burnt some other buildings.

Hundreds of residents were rendered homeless as a result of the tragedy.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had on Monday set up a N2bn relief fund for the victims of the explosion.

The acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Federal Housing Authority, Umaru Buntu, had said during an assessment tour of the area on Tuesday that Federal Government acquired the land from the Ojo Military Cantonment to the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex area in 1973, adding that it would come back to take over the area.

Reacting to the statement, a resident of the community, Emmanuel Umeh, who noted that the residents and the FHA had been in a good relationship, said he was shocked to hear that the area would be taken over by the Federal Government.

He stated, “We expect the government to come to our aid but I’m highly disappointed by the statement of the FHA boss, because we have been to the FHA several times and we have an agreement with it. We are not here illegally.

“We sent people to the FHA to work on the documentation of our land and what the FHA told us was that the state government took it to court, because Lagos wanted to recover the land from the Federal Government.

“The FHA told us that it could not develop the place and that it had stopped the development of Festac Town on the Seventh Avenue and that we should develop here and when it settles with the state government out of court, we would have our survey plans and title documents and rectify the land and the state would give us Cs-of-O. So, we are surprised now that the agency is denying us.

“When we had issues with the pipeline, the NNPC officials came to demarcate the land and we observed the 40-metre setback they said we should stay away from. We have been in good relationship with the government and now that we have a problem, the government should come to our aid and not take what we have; the government should support us. I lost property worth over N130m to the explosion.”

Another resident, Prophet Uche Festus, while condemning Buhari for not visiting the community, stated that some of the residents bought the land from the Federal Government.

He said, “I bought this land from the Federal Government and I have documents to that effect and many people here are not strangers; so, it’s not about documents.

“Last year, soldiers came and cleared this place and told us that we should go and repurchase the land from the Federal Government, which we did and we have the receipts. If we have a government that loves its people, the things we are saying here now are not what we should be talking about; many lives were lost and the FHA is talking about reacquiring the land.”

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