In a bid to restore the master plan of the state, Edo State Government announced that it had sealed off 50 different properties in the state in the last two months for violating the master plan
The state Commissioner for Physical Planning, Urban and Regional Development, Isoken Omo, who made the disclosure in Benin, said that the ministry had also visited 20,294 properties within the same period, in addition to talking to 81,000 persons.
Omo stated these in Benin City during a meeting with real estate developers.
According to her, the visit of the ministry to the local government areas in the state was to gather data to enable the government to plan the state for the benefit of its citizens.
“This is the data we have gathered so far in the past two months. We have visited two local governments already, Oredo and part of Ikpoba Okha.
“And also parts of Oredo but not finished. We have visited six communities apart from the commercial areas because we don’t classify commercial areas as communities.
“We have talked to about 81,000 people in different fora. We have visited 20,294 properties in that time and we have also sealed about 50 properties in that time, we also have other data of properties to be demolished but I can’t bring it here, just to tell you the magnitude of what can happen in two months. So, if you have to estimate based on this, if we continue this to the end of the year, we will cover the whole of Edo State easily”, she said.
Omo said from the ministry’s findings, that those who said that they were into real estate had not gotten approval from the state government.
The commissioner said the real estate developers had also failed to engage professionals in their dealings, thereby endangering the lives of the people who would live in the estate.
She explained that some of the properties sealed by her ministry posed threat to the inhabitants of the area.
“One of the houses we sealed, was a mould house and we saw them casting a slab on top of it, taking it up. Another we sealed, two hotels on two sides of the road, the owner of the hotel put a bridge across the road so that his people can be working on the other side of the hotel.
“Another place we sealed, is residential, the person without approval started excavating to build a shopping mall, no approval, no nothing, we sealed it.