Lagos, residents bicker over plan to link Magodo to new scheme

Residents of Magodo estate under the aegis of Magodo Resident Development Association (MRDA) have protested plans by the Lagos State government to create access road through Block 89 A, Magodo Extension Magodo, Lagos.

The state government has recently deployed a heavy earth-moving caterpillar to clear the bushes and shanties along the end of Ashiru Shittu Street of Magodo scheme.

Already, works at the channelization of canal between Magodo brooks and Omole Phase 1, have created a disharmony between residents and government leading to temporary stoppage of works at the site.

The residents allege that the move is connected to a plan to link the estate with Omole, and creating access for allottees to a new housing scheme located near the area.

They, argued that such exercise will create environmental hazards for the residents.

But the government has started engaging the residents on its plan for the area, which has been turned to hide outs for criminals and miscreants.

Head of Public Relations and Complaints, Lagos Lands Bureau, Kayode Sutton, said the decision to meet with the residents even though government has the ultimate rights to work on its scheme was a demonstration that the present administration in the state   want to carry every body along.

According to him, the state government has acted with good intentions, to avert canal over flow, curtail the social menaces associated with the areas as well as create access in between its two schemes.

The state government, he stressed had set up and Inter-Ministerial committee made up of Ministries of the Environment, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Lands and Enforcement Units. He explained that government noticed that portions of the land have become a safe heaven to miscreants, who even went ahead to plant Indian helm in the area.

“It is being done to avert canal over flow and the menaces associated with the environment.

“ There is nothing wrong in doing what government did, no need to consult anybody to live up to its responsibilities”, he added.

According to him, the government had last year advertised that all alottees to its scheme should start developing their lands or have their allocations revoked. But, there were complaints of lack of government presence in the past resulting in the absence of basic infrastructures such as good roads, electricity among others, to their sites.

“ Government, he said is creating access in between its two schemes, which are; Magodo and Magodo II for allottees to move on site.

“There is always a misconception about the Magodo scheme, but we have the Masterplan and know where Magodo scheme stopped”.  He added.

But the Chairman of the MRDA, Mr. Kunle Eludire  told The Guardian  that  such a work should not be  done without carrying  residents  along especially,  when the site provides water plain for the estate and a buffer for  environmental disaster in the area.

He noted that residents had planned to wall off the place to prevent miscreants from encroaching on the land before they noticed the caterpillar on the site.

Describing the move to link the estate with Omole, as unnecessary Eludire said , information gathered by the estate showed that government was only creating access for some allottees of land in the forest.

He also alleged that the exercise would create more problems for residents, who might face environmental hazards.

However, the Executive Secretary of Lagos Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC), Kayode Ogunnubi in a letter to the chairman of the MRDA, stated that the exercise was a proactive measure urgently taken aftermath the order of governor Akinwumi Ambode to remove shanties, bushes and others, that could pose security threat to the metropolis.

He stressed that the Lands Bureau is poised to keep the state lands safe and secure and called for the cooperation of the estate on the exercise.