Governorship Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, OON, has blasted vested interests in the state for corruption on the matter of land acquisition and compensations.
Jimi
Agbaje Agbaje said the trend had been for the ruling forces dominating
state affairs in the last 19 years to shortchange land owners and resell
to land speculators for a pittance, and to sometimes entirely
dispossess the landowners without an appropriate compensation package.
He was accompanied by his Running Mate, Mrs. Haleemat Busari.
Agbaje
reiterated his vow that the Lekki Toll Gate would cease to exist as
soon as he took over power in Lagos State. Speaking to hundreds of
Ibeju-Lekki residents who gathered in a town hall meeting with him at
the weekend, the Lagos PDP Governorship Candidate said land usurpers in
power could not be allowed to continue business as usual as they dealt
in injustice.
Agbaje reiterated his vow that the Lekki Toll Gate
would cease to exist as soon as he took over power in Lagos State.
Speaking to hundreds of Ibeju-Lekki residents who gathered in a town
hall meeting with him at the weekend, the Lagos PDP Governorship
Candidate said land usurpers in power could not be allowed to continue
business as usual as they dealt in injustice.
“They have taken over all your land here,” he lamented.
“What
is happening now in Lagos State is that land owners are shortchanged
and their land stolen. These people are after what they can get from
investors, not after the interest of the citizens. They tell the people
that they have negotiated on their behalf and they pocket the lion’s
share of the amount collected from investors. Should we continue this
way?” According to him, land owners in the state would only get their
proper entitlements with the overthrow of the present political system
in the coming elections.
“Land management process in Lagos State
has been done in a manner that has continued to benefit members of the
privileged cabal in the state and this is not right. Ordinarily, what a
sincere government ought to do is to midwife a deal between land owners
and the investors who should pay the appropriate compensation to the
owners. The arrangement we have now is that these people collect money
from the investor and pay pittance to the indigenes and this has been
the root of the crises between the indigenes and the numerous investors
in the state,” he said.
Bemoaning the state of infrastructural
decay in the axis, he observed that the road from Ibeju-Lekki to Epe had
failed to be developed beyond the efforts that the state’s Second
Republic Governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, put in place since 1983.
He
also bemoaned the fact that the zone could only boast of two
government-owned secondary schools, which, he pointed out, were a far
cry from the needs of the children in the area. Agbaje promised that his
government would provide more schools with state-of-the-art facilities,
as education featured on his list of priorities.
“Our priority
when we come into government is education. All schools will be
well-equipped. In Lagos today, pupils sit on the floor. If we fail to
train our children well, we have no future. Our education will be
premised on that of Chief Obafemi Awolowo,” he promised. “Gone are the
days when government schools were better than private schools. We must
go back there.”
According to him, the people’s electricity needs
would be met as he planned to increase power generation by 3,000
megawatts by the end of his first tenure. ‘Egypt’ as metaphor for APC
and PDP The PDP Candidate thereafter paid a courtesy visit to the palace
of paramount ruler, Oba Olusegun Bamidele Salami, Ogunbase 1 the
Onibeju of Ibeju land, where he and Mrs. Busari were showered with
prayers. Committing the politicians’ aspirations into the hand of God,
Oba Salami said: “By God’s grace you will get there. People will want
you. You will not fall into error. When you get there, you will remember
us. May you know peace. You will get all the help you need. God will
promote you. You will not work in vain.”
Agbaje also assured the
monarch that his government would urgently ensure that the mini water
works, built by Jakande across the state were revamped to provide
potable water supply to residents. In his welcome address, the PDP
candidate to the Federal House of Representatives, Prince Wasiu Elemoro,
had earlier at the town hall meeting, urged his people to remain
steadfast in their support for his party, as therein lay their progress.
Source:- Vanguardngr
Share your thoughts