One year after the multi million naira property located at No. 1, Lebanon Street, Dugbe Alawo, Ibadan, was gutted by fire, its owners have cried out over alleged refusal of the Oyo state government to issue approval for the renovation of the property.
The people: Mr. Dapo Davies, Managing Director of Pelly Foam, and Pelumi Foluwaso Ojo, are alleging the Oyo state Commissioner for Land, Housing, Survey, and Urban Development, Barr. Abiodun Abdulraheem of deliberately refusing to issue the approval for up to one year, at the instance of one Mr. Peter Asa, who they accused of plotting to forcefully take over the property.
OYOINSIGHT.COM has, however, not been able to speak with Abdulraheem as at press time as messages sent to his WhatsApp line are still pending as at press time.
Davies and Ojo, in a letter dated 19th of April, 2021, written to Governor Seyi Makinde of the state, by their counsel, Babatunde Oni, demanded that the building plan approval be issued within the next fourteen days, imploring the governor to direct the appropriate ministry to do the needful.
It would be recalled that Makinde personally visited the premises of the property after it was gutted by mysterious inferno on 15th of April, 2020, and magnanimously gave out palliatives to traders affected by the fire incident.
But Davies and Ojo lamented that despite the submission of building plan and integrity test conducted on the building, wherein the build assessment passed integrity test, all efforts made to make the Ministry of Land release the building plan for further action proved abortive.
In the letter titled: “Re: Refusal to Issue Approval to Renovate the Maliciously Burnt Building at No.1, Lebanon Street, Dugbe Alawo, Ibadan: An Appeal for Intervention”, the people expressed surprise that Makinde’s Commissioner during a recent radio programme said that non approval of the building plan was due to an order of the High Court restraining same.
Davies and Ojo, who insisted that there is no order from any court preventing or restraining the ministry from granting the approval, challenged the ministry to produce a copy of such order.
“It must be noted that the cases pending on the property have been on since 2004, before the fire incident and our clients are in full possession before and after the fire incident”, the letter read in part.
