Mr Adewunmi Odusola, a developer, estate surveyor is hurt by the fact that his new housing development of over N100million in Lekki -Epe Axis has been marked for demolition going by the alignment of the right -of- way of Lagos -Calabar Coastal Highway project. He shares his experience with DAYO AYEYEMI.
Tell us about your project that is impacted by the proposed Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway?
This particular project is situated at Igando-orudu Village. igando-orudu is just on the road from Eleko down to Solumeja, and it is directly facing that road and this property is covered by Lagos State. We acquired the land from the landowners; and it is all in an effort to provide an affordable land for people to key into to be able to put a roof over their head. We thought in what way can we contribute, and this came about in 2020 when we acquired the land. We cleared the place, at that point in time , we realised that there was an already alignment that was created for this Coastal Road, which everybody has known of. We felt that government is going to key into that alignment but now we just discovered that there is a detour, and if the detour is going to affect us, we are not saying government can not acquire any property but the procedure has to be followed, knowing fully-well that there are investments at stake, there are interest to be taken care of, people’s wealth are at stake too. Let’s say from the point of an investor, from the point of those who have keyed into the project, they have sown their sweat into that project and we felt that with the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report, people would have been summoned, the community would have been asked to participate in this EIA and we would have been able to be given the opportunity to bear our grievances out. If we are going to key into any compensatory procedure, that would have been taken care of, but for you to just come up within a spate of one or two weeks and say yes, this alignment is taken and caterpillar are on the way. Before you say Jack Robinson, you are caught unaware and the whole thing are rooted out. This is a place that is a swamp that we reclaimed, and to reclaim a place now, you know what a tipper load, a 20 tonnes lorry of a filling sand is about N130,000, and for you to sink over 300 to 500 of such thing into a place, you know what will have been spent. Somebody just come with the caterpillar, your interest was not taken cognisance of, you are just rooted and you are now being left at the expense running from one government office to the other. There, they are pushing you from one person to the other person. You can›t fight government, even if you are to fight government, that would have been done before you say you now want to seek compensation. Now what are the processes of the compensation, are they being fair in doing that?
I have attended a forum whereby the government staff will be telling you that ‘don’t hope for too much, we are just going to give you something just to ensure that the traditions are done, just to ensure that compensations are paid’, whereas the book says it has to be adequate. There is nobody that has come there to say that we have taken cognisance of what you have sunk into this place and their own caterpillar is passing over it.
How much have you sunk into dredging and sand filling?
I cleared the place and sandfilled the place. I have pictures.
What is the cost of sand filling?
The worth is over N100 million. it is about six acres of land and to sandfill an acre of land now, I have given this figure. So if you do the plus and minus of this figure that I gave you, you will know what it has cost us.
Are you engaging the government now about compensation?
I came in from Canada not up to three weeks now. I went for health related issues. I have been out of the country for over nine months because of my ailment, so just coming back now to key into this thing is like… I heard about the Eko Hotel’s stakeholders’ meeting but, at that time , I was busy running to the site to see what was being done and that was why I made an adage that “it is not he who the coconut was broken on his head that will think of eating part of the coconut.” You know if your house is under the bulldozer, I don’t think you will have the time to go and attend a meeting at Eko Hotel. You will be thinking about what to salvage in your house rather than going and sitting down at a meeting. I am not saying that government doesn’t have the power of eminent domain, that they don’t have the acquisition rights. They have the acquisition right of public interest but must we suffer, must we be taken down to the dungeon in order to prove that government is doing better things for everybody? Are we not part of the everybody that is being taken care of? Why are we singled out?
I just sighted an instance of Oworonshoki scheme, that a government came in place for something that another set of government have done and said yes, I have acquired this. The procedure is that before you acquire, pay compensation, I mean adequate compensation.
You have not paid adequate compensation, you moved in your dredgers into the place and you sandfilled the whole place for well over four years and no compensation was paid. Are you thinking whether you are going to do project or not and after another government came in, they said they are not doing the project again. So if my life is tied to that property, I would have been dispensed off. Is it in my grave that you are now going to call me to say come and use the property again? Why are you toying with people’s lives? Why are you toying with people’s investment?
Are you discouraged by all these?
Yes, I am totally discouraged. You think if I see any opportunity to get out of the country now, I won’t go?
So what do you expect the government to do?
Government should come down there, take stock of what is there, pay adequate compensation. There are equity holders, those that have brought property from us, what is their fate now and who is going to pay them? Again, is that not double loses, that they are to take me to court to say you have sold us a plot of land and government has taken it. Is it me they are going to take to court or the government? Let’s be seen to be doing something right.
What will be your advice to people who still want to invest going by this experience?
We’ve heard the story of Landmark. Several investors have come all over the globe to invest in this place and a government woke up overnight, not thinking about what they have sunk into the place and had the effrontery to mark the place, so what will you tell them? Even if tomorrow you say you are not doing it again, do you think they will believe in the system? You never invited them to a meeting, to say look your investment is going to be affected and these are the ways we plan to meet your loses? Before you touch what I have put in place, you need to invite me. I am a stakeholder, call me to a table; yes, this is for overriding public interest and you are going to give you part of your investment but these are the things we have planned for you to ensure that you are not worse off. We have even thought about the people you have employed into the place that they will not lose their jobs. Government should have taken that into cognisance not to just toy with the mind of people and say because you are in a position and you have the effrontery to just knock down their investment anyhow. Is that how we do things if one of them is hypertensive? Several bank loans would have gone into this place. Even if you are going to give them compensation, for the fact that you do not root your compensation properly by informing them before marking it, you did not prepare their mind, that is enough to send their Blood Pressure (BP) up and they would have collapsed. Who are those that will estimate the health damages, the health impact that this news has caused?
You cannot measure that. Everybody is nursing their grievances on their bed, only few will come up. Nobody wants to be seen as being antagonist to the government. If you want to be in their good books at your own detriment. So where is the hope?
You keep on telling people in diaspora to come back home and invest. Is this what they are coming to meet? We need to get things right. We are not saying you cannot do this thing, please properly attend to the needs of people, have them in mind because they are working legitimately, they are not fraudsters, they are trying to put one or one together in order to be useful to the society, and in their doing their bid, you should be seen to be encouraging them. This is the only country that I have seen that it is only law-abiding citizens that are being faulted.
A government will wake up today, it is you that is paying taxes that they will hunt. Those that are not paying taxes they won›t run after them. You will see different agencies coming to your doorstep to come and harass you all because you have identified yourself to the goal of the government. But those that are not paying, they won›t run after them, and because you have identified with the government, it is to sneeze life out of you to ensure that nobody asks you whether you are doing business, whether you make profit or not. It is have you payed your tax for last month?
Let’s know you better
My name is Adewunmi Olushola, I’m an estate surveyor and valuer but I’m the Managing Director of Homeland Asset Management Company, a property development firm and we have some site and service schemes in Lagos both the ones that we have accomplished and the one that is just upcoming.
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