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By Samuel Ogude
The Director General, Special Duties in the office of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, Frank Omare said the demolition of illegal structures in the state is not meant to witch- hunt anybody but to save Deltans who annually suffer from flooding in the state. Omare stated this on Friday when cleaning drainages in Warri, Effurun, and its environs.
According to him, Deltans are faced with flooding in the state due to the building of houses on water -ways by many, either because the buildings were wrongly approved or the owners built them deliberately because they feel, they were close to the government. He said, by this exercise, there would not be sacred cow as any house which is built on the water ways would be pulled down.
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His words:” We are faced with flooding situation in this part of the country , especially Warri, Uvwie and its environs because, most of these buildings are on water ways. These buildings were either approved wrongly or deliberately built by people who feel that they are close to government, and that their houses can not be pulled down”.
He said, the officials of the Ministry of Urban Renewal and Ministry of Justice are on ground adding, any of these buildings that have their approval, the owners would be compensated for their demolished buildings. He however said, no responsible government officials would approve wrong building adding, whoever built on water ways without the approval, would have ended up wasting his money.
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His words:” The Ministry of Urban Renewal and the Ministry of justice officials are on ground so that we know, if these buildings have their approval, they(owners) would be referred to the state government for appropriate compensation. We must do everything within orbit of the law, nobody should be scared but if you know that you built on water channels, please, go and remove it”.
The Director General, Speacial Duties who said this demolition of illegal structures is not peculiar to Warri, Uvwie or Asaba but the entire state said, fighting the state annual flooding would be in stages, saying, what is being done now is clearing drains, thereafter, there would be the construction of concrete walls that channel the water to the Atlantic Ocean. According to him, the state government would provide waste bins to every house hold in the state so that they can evacuate their refuse to government’s approved dump site adding, if that is not done, what the government is doing will be a futile exercise.
According to Omare, Nigerians should see the environment as theirs as the government can not be using tax payers’ money in clearing drainages for the people. He allayed the fears of the people as everything would be done within the law.
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His words:” We should see the environment as ours, it is not a question of Frank Omare or the Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori , we all should make our environment clean by doing the right thing. We will not relent until we get a better environment in the state but don’t be scared, everything is done within the law”.
So far, the drains cleared include the ones which run from Effurun GRA to Okolaba down to Aka Avenue and Ugboroke to Ogborikoko down to Ekpan River and NNPC Housing Complex in Ekpan in Uvwie and Warri Local Government Areas respectively.