Septuagenarian Samuel Adeolu had only returned from where he had gone to purchase some bags of wheat for use in his bakery. But as he alighted from his car, he suddenly stopped short. “What is this? What is this?”, he screamed, as he beheld the ruin of what used to be his beloved bakery. That was four years ago
Today, a sanguine Adeolu is yet to recover from a stroke disease he contacted, consequent upon the irreparable loss; whereas, the massive road project for which his source of income went under remains stymied, as the state government seems hampered by paucity of funds, going by the snail pace of the road projects.
Elsewhere in the Yakoyo, Alagbole, Akute, Lambe, Ijoko and Sango border communities of Ogun State, stories abound of how many former landlords have inconsolably lapsed into sickness and died, as they awaited compensations in vain from the Ogun State government.
While some landlords could not bear the shock of this reversal in fortune, some who could endure the pains, according to findings, are no more than social dregs, as they are often found around the localities, looking straight ahead in deep contemplation; some soliloquising.
Speaking on the ordeal of house owners, a leader of Yakoyo-Odozi-Ojodu landlords Association in Ifo South Local Council Development Area, Prince Jimoh Oshinubu, valued properties brought down by the government’s bulldozers in the area at over half a billion naira, lamenting that “not a dime has been received so far, after so many entreaties to the Ogun State governor and other government officials.”
Oshinubi said apart from those who lost their buildings some four years ago at the inception of the road construction projects, not a few of the landlords and other residents were rendered homeless early last year, when government, without notice, also descended on more structures.
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