Asaba — DELTA state government has raised an alarm over the discovery of a scam resulting in the alleged unilateral acquisition of plots of land by some commissioners and by the state legislators to the detriment of the masses.
Government has therefore, asked all the commissioners and legislators who had been allocated part of the said land to hands off immediately.
State Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Love Ojakovo while briefing newsmen in Asaba yesterday on the activities of his ministry blamed one of its parastatals, Delta Development and Property Authority (DDPA) for the connivance and described the action of the DDPA in apportioning the land as capable of sparking off political tension in the state.
Ojakovo gave a vivid account of what transpired this way.
“The DDPA is semi autonomous; it is allowed to exercise its powers and discretions within the ambit approved by government. Government acquired the Ibusa land at the request of the DDPA who said that they wanted a land to develop a housing estate and with that request, government mandated the Ministry of Lands, Urban Development to acquire that land. Having acquired that land and handed it over to DDPA, what DDPA should do is to go to that land, get a master plan, cost it and come back to government and say this is what we want to do with it, this is what it will cost, this is how we are going to get the money after that has been done and if government approves, then it goes to implement it.
"Now, what did DDPA do, they got that land; did not have the master plan; they have not sought and gotten any approval. The first thing they did was to allocate this land.
“This is illegal, administratively wrong, and politically volatile. Imagine that you are a native of Ibusa; you are one of those who own those lands that have been acquired by government and you were told that these lands would be used to build houses that the people of Ibusa will benefit from because in building such houses those you acquired land from are the first consideration in purchasing these houses and you are expectant, you are hoping and the next thing you hear is that the land has been allocated to politicians round the spectrum.
"No reasonable self-respecting government will allow this; and that is what happened, DDPA allocated the houses to members of the House of Assembly, to Commissioners. I am a commissioner and we said no you cannot do this, the land was not meant to be allocated to politicians. It was meant for you to build houses and give to the public”, he pointed out.
