By DAVID ADEOYE

Oyo state government has directed its officials to stop demolition of structures and other properties beyond 150 metres already marked on the Ibadan circular road project.

The state Commissioner for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mr Williams Akin-Funmilayo, who gave the directive on Friday, also told the officials to stop marking of structures in the specified axis.

Akin-Funmilayo spoke in Ibadan during a news conference, following protests by some affected property owners.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that property owners on the circular road corridor whose houses had been demolished or marked for demolition.had been staging peaceful protests since Wednesday.

Akin-Funmilayo explained that it was not the administration of Gov. Seyi Makinde that extended the circular road corridor setback from 150 metres to 500 metres as had been circulated.

According to him, the 150 metres to the right and 150 metres to the left of the circular road were acquired in 2006 by the administration of Sen. Rasheed Ladoja.

He said the administration of late Abiola Ajimobi in 2018 acquired and gazetted additional 350 metres on the right and left sides of the road.

The commissioner explained that the markings on all structures on the road corridor were for enumeration, to know the number of affected structures and to stop those that were erecting new structures on the acquired lands.

He, however, assured affected landlords and property owners that adequate compensation would be paid after enumeration of the properties had been concluded.

He informed the affected property owners that government would halt the marking and demolition for now.

?The circular road is divided into two phases, the 150 metres segment and the 350 metres segment. The 150 metres segment is what we are clearing now for construction of the project and development.

?I want to make it clear that settlements within the 150 metres will be fenced off the circular road, they are going to be preserved and not removed.

?The settlements include villages, housing settlements and some other value-addition settlements within the road corridor that are going to be left the way they are.

?The state government will try its best to minimise the consequences in the construction of the road,? the Commissioner said. (NAN)

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