The Kwara State Government has demolished illegal structures at Unity Road, Ilorin, the state capital, in compliance with the Federal Government’s directive.
The exercise is to ensure that government offices and schools do not have commercial ventures in front of them to guarantee the safety of lives and property in the face of insecurity in the country.
Executive Chairman, Kwara State Geographic Information Service, Abdulkareem Babatunde Sulyman, explained that the affected structures were on the road setback of the state Fire Service Office and the Amusement Park owned by the government.
Represented by the Director, Physical Planning Authority and Development Control, Sunday Idowu, the chairman, explained that the exercise was a federal directive that is being implemented across all the 36 states of the federation.
He affirmed that the directive was long overdue, but due to the magnanimity of the state government and the people-centric approach to governance, the exercise was stalled till now.
Sulyman maintained that several removal notices had been served on the shop owners in accordance with the seven days notice in the extant laws of the Certificate of Temporary Occupancy.
He therefore appealed to members of the public to desist from building on the road setbacks because as it is unreliable for livelihood, asserting that the exercise would continue in other places.
The Head of the Patrol Unit of the agency, Abdulkareem Moshood, said all the demolished structures were illegal in the face of the law and affecting traffic flow in the area.
He added that there was contravention on the road setback, and several shop owners have encroached to the walkway, advising the general public to contact relevant government offices before embarking on any development on the land.
Treasurer of Shop Owners at Unity Road, Mrs Moshood Tunrayo Onipede, however, appealed to the state government to consider resettlement and compensation, as virtually all their lives depended on the place.
She said that the place had created employment opportunities for many unemployed youths who were hitherto roaming the streets without jobs.
Mr Sheriff Ajenifuja, another shop owner, also pleaded to the state government to improve on the sensitisation programmes on the need for people to refrain from building on setbacks, adding that the demolition exercise would have been averted if the government had mobilised personnel to the site a week before, to enable shop owners to remove their property.
