Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Monday assured that none of the buildings on the corridor of the Circular Road in Ibadan, which is under construction, would be demolished.
Makinde gave the assurance when he addressed hundreds of property owners who besieged the state secretariat at Agodi in Ibadan.
The property owners were protesting what was seen as an impending demolition.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that affected property owners had been staging peaceful protests in Ibadan since Wednesday.
NAN also reports that the state government had informed the public that the administration of Abiola Ajimobi extended the Circular Road corridor setback from 150 metres to 500 metres.
This information had subsequently made officials of the state Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development to begin marking all structures on the road corridor for enumeration.
Makinde, while addressing the protesters, explained that it was the Senator Rasheed Ladoja administration, which initially acquired 150 metres (75 metres right and 75 metres left) for the road in 2006.
He added that the administration of Ajimobi in 2018 acquired and gazetted additional 350 metres for the road.
The governor said the marking of properties outside the initial 150 metres was mainly to know the number of affected structures.
“But this was not for demolition of property,” he insisted.
Makinde assured the protesters that further enumeration would be done in conjunction with the communities.
He said all already existing buildings outside the initial 150 metres acquired for the Circular Road project would be integrated.
The governor, however, warned that nobody should begin the erection of new structures on the remaining acquired corridor, which is 425 metres right and 425 metres left.
“But from now, don’t start laying house foundations within the corridor because we must plan the place,” he said.
Speaking earlier, two of the property owners, Niyi Fasoye and Azeez Olaide, appealed to the governor not to acquire 500 metres.
Fasoye said: “If you do this, more than 400,000 property owners will become homeless.”
He urged the state government to limit the road setback to 150 metres as gazetted by the administration of Senator Ladoja in 2006.
Olaide said all affected property owners on the road corridor had been in a state of panic and living in fear since the marking of buildings began.
“We only want to appeal to Governor Makinde to prevail on officials assigned for the markings to stop this,” he said.
