Lagos to resettle Okobaba residents at Epe Council
By Regina Akpabio and Happiness Ofokhire
FOLLOWING the fire incident that destroyed the Okobaba Sawmills in Ebutte-Meta, Lagos recently, the state government is planning to resettle the residents of the area in Ejirin in Epe local council.
About 10,000 residents who are mainly sawmillers are expected to resettle on about 60 hectares of land which the state government has acquired close to Epe Lagoon, about three kilometres to Epe town.
According to the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Hakeem Gbajabiamila, the government is planning to build about 400 two-bedroom and three-bedroom flat for the people to start a new life.
The commissioner, who spoke when he led a government delegation on a fact-finding tour of the area, said: "We are trying to put facilities in place to ensure that it is one of the projects billed for completion this year."
He said the government chose to resettle the sawmillers at Ejirin on tracing the history of the people to the community.
"We realised through history that the residents of Okobaba came from Ejirin to settle at Okobaba to eke out a living. From Our findings, we discovered that the community is richly endowed with natural resources. We then resolved to develop the area and give it back to them. In Okobaba water, we cannot get the kind of fish we have in Ejirin.
"If we develop the community, investors will come in and our youths who are in Lagos will move in to get employment."
Contractors were seen yesterday working on the two boreholes located at Sekungba village that will supply water to the indigenes and the new settlers.
The original settlers of the community who came out to welcome the delegation in a hilarious procession expressed their gratitude to the Lagos State government in bringing development to their community.
Most of them were already employed to clear the portion of land that would be used for the project.
Among the facilities to be put in place are bakery, Filling Station, Market, a linking bridge to Lekki and the dredging of the Lagoon.
Gbajabiamila said the project is to bring wealth and glamour to the rural dwellers, adding that "every machinery for the relocation has been put in place and the government is really committed to the project".
The secretary of the sawmill traders association, Alhaji Ganiyu Onikeku, said that although the market people are willing to move, they would like to see all the conditions given to the government fulfilled first.
He particularly noted that although the traders had demanded that the government should write officially to the Inland Waterways to obtain permission for the programme, he was not sure that this had been done.
Rather, they were assured that there would be no problem in that regard.
Onikeku said: "The commissioner for physical planning understands that without clearing that aspect, it would be very difficult for us to move and he has given us assurance that there is no problem. We demanded that a letter should be written to the Inland Waterways so that they would not come after us when we eventually move."
The sawmillers' secretary also noted that the traders are sceptical of the effect of the new market place on their patronage because of the distance to the city but they are ready to move because they do not want to run away from their problems.
"That is why we are demanding that they should improve the roads because it won't be convenient to our customers. So, we are definitely expecting that there would be problems at the outset but we can not run away from it. We can not say that this place would be better but we can say it is good," he said.
