Ekiti Govt begins demolition of desolate, security risk houses
The Ekiti State Government, on Tuesday, said it has begun demolition of structures considered to be posing high security threats to residents.
The state Commissioner for Works and Transportation, Mrs. Funmilayo Ogun said while addressing journalists at the end of the first day of the exercise in Ado Ekiti that all abandoned houses which had become ready haven for all manner of criminals would be affected.
Besides, she said also to be affected are houses that are to give way to construction of modern car parks so as to ease current tempo of traffic congestion, especially in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.
Ogun said government felt it was not enough to arrest drivers for wrong packing along the roads and make them to pay fines without providing alternative parking spaces for them.
She however clarified that the exercise would not be massive, as houses to be affected would only fall to the bulldozers, when the need arises.
According to her, the present administration in the state was determined to leave the state better than it met it, saying this gave rise to why it embarked on many legacy projects.
The Commissioner who dispelled insinuations in some quarters that some of the projects, especially the first Flyover in the state, currently under construction in Ado Ekiti were misplaced priority,
said the plan of Fayose-led administration was not to limit scope of development to the present day alone, but to also strategise against the future by tackling some of its future infrastructural needs.
She promised that contrary to expectations, none of the projects would be abandoned before the tenure if the present administration terminates on October 16, 2018.
Already, she disclosed that government had completed the re-construction work on a 67-year-old, 30 metre long Ikun bridge on Oye-Otun road axis of the state as well as the dualisation and street lighting of eight, out of the 16 local government headquarters of the state.
She said the bridge is to replace the old narrow gauge colonial bridge constructed by the administration of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the 1950s.
She said the bridge was one of the projets embarked upon by the present administration to take the state to greater heights as well as make life meaningful for residents.
She listed other landmark projectd currently ongoing across the state to include a new governor’s office building complex in Ado Ekiti; the one- kilometre overhead bridge in Ado Ekiti, the new High Court complex in Ado Ekiti as well as dualisation of Ikere Ekiti- Ado Ekiti road.
Others are the new ultra-modern Oja Oba market in Ado Ekiti, dualisation of all towns hosting the 16 local government headquarters in the state among several other legacy projects.
She assured that none of the projects would be left uncompleted by the end of the tenure of the present government next year.
The commissioner reiterated the commitment of the Fayose led administration to completing all ongoing projects in the State.
She stressed the devotion of the administration to the provision of worthy infrastructures that would impact positively on the lives of the people.
The commissioner said that the new bridge would eliminate the danger of the incessant road accidents and other security risks associated with the archaic bridge.
According to her, the completion of the projects would also boost socio-economic activities in the area as rural farmers and traders would be able to move their farm produce and wares with relative ease.
She said as a result of the commitment of the present administration to building physical infrastructures, eapecially roads and street lights,
both private vehicle owners and commercial vehicle drivers from other states that had hitherto abandoned the state roads had found their ways back in Ekiti.
Gbenga Sodeinde, Ado Ekiti
