Tears over demolition of buildings in Ogun community

It was tears galore last Thursday in Araromi Ajegunle community in Makun area of Sagamu Local Government, Ogun State, after some persons suspected to be government officials carried out demolition of buildings in the community.

The distraught landlords lamented the demolitions which they explained caught them unawares.
The state government however said it had no hand in the demolition.

The demolition which started at about 7 a.m with stern-looking mobile policemen protecting the officials.
The affected landlords explained that their belongings were not spared during the demolitions, which also affected shops.
The Nation learnt that an unidentified woman who had been laid up with stroke for some years was forcibly ejected from her house before the building was brought down by the bulldozers.

According to one of the residents, Mr. Micheal Ariyo, those behind the demolition ‘’suddenly came to our community with mobile policemen and ordered us out of our houses. They shot sporadically in to the air to intimidate us.

They did not allow us to remove our belongings at all. Residents who were not at home had their houses demolished in their absence.
Ariyo explained that residents had filed a suit pending before a state High Court in Sagamu against previous attempts by the state government to carry out the exercise.
A 74-year-old landlord, Samuel Ogunyombo,

and her children battled tears while narrating the agony which the demolition of his house has caused.
He said he has lost all he laboured to achieve in life saying ‘’ Where do I go from here. Where do I start from since my entire belongings have been lost to the demolition?

Another resident, Olatunde Olawale, who moved to the community about three months ago after completing his house blamed the demolition on the state government.
A cross-section of the respondents claimed they spotted two officials of the Bureau of Land among those who carried out the demolition.

They urged the state government in the interest of justice and fairness to come to their aid.
Contacted, the spokesman of Bureau of Land, Mr Michael Passover Adesina said the agency was not responsible for the alleged demolition.

He explained that the agency had only been carrying out awareness programme in communities to sensitise residents on the need to encroach on government land.

He urged the distraught property owners to further their investigation on those behind the demolition, adding that the agency already has a number of cases involving land grabbers who are being aided by policemen to demolish buildings illegally.

‘’Officials of our agency are not involved in the demolition exercise and it has not even come to our attention that some persons pulled down buildings in that axis of the state. We have not carried out a single demolition within the last three years; we have only be sensitising people to avoid erecting structures on public land.’’

A source in the Ministry of Urban and Physical Planning, the ministry had no hand in the controversial demolition exercise.