ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, has warned individuals and groups to stop erecting illegal structures on roadsides just to get compensation from the state government.
The Governor added that such illegal structures obstruct development projects and would not be allowed., stressing that his administration would only pay compensation on duly certified structures.
He gave the warning while addressing a congregation in his home town during a thanksgiving in Ikot Ekpene Udo, Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of the State.
Eno, who faulted the indiscriminate upsurge of unwarranted structures on roadsides of the community, described the act as anti-development, borne out of greed to rob the government of funds. He, therefore, ordered owners of the unsolicited buildings to dismantle them with immediate effect.
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āPlease, to those of you who have heard me saying that we are going to construct roads, thank God our traditional rulers and the village heads of these communities are here.
āI want to use this occasion to appeal to all those raising illegal structures by the road with the hope of getting compensation to please desist from such actions.
āThis is a very serious warning; if we come with a project to your community and you obstruct it because of compensation, we will leave and take the project to another community.
āI will not struggle to help the people of the community. If we come to your local government, village or community for development, you should receive and encourage us. We are prepared to develop the rural areas. We are prepared to work but let it be that when we come, we donāt meet resistance in any form.
āIt is not out of place to pay compensation for the old existing structures but for the hurriedly constructed buildings we will not pay,ā he warned.
Also, Governor Eno directed local government council chairmen across the state to make available hundred hectares of land in their domains for development projects, explaining that the move is to enable his administration to take development to the grassroots as enunciated in the A.R.I.S.E. agenda of his administration.