Ekiti Government has sealed two gas plants and an eatery over unauthorised structures, cautioning residents against indiscriminate erection of buildings without government approval .
Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr Oladapo Karounwi, gave the warning on Thursday in Ado-Ekiti.
Oladapo said that the buildings and structures sealed in Ado- Ekiti were erected in contravention of the extant rules on safety and structural integrity.
Some of the structures that were sealed by officials of the ministry included: gas plants belonging to A.A. Rano in Adebayo area and NNPC station on Iworoko road as well as a two-storey building housing a popular eatery in Adebayo area.
Oladapo also said that government would no longer take it lightly with anyone erecting structures without obtaining necessary permit, adding that owners and developers of such buildings would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
The commissioner called on property owners with no government approval to urgently carry out necessary regularisation, stressing that the ministry had concluded plans to meet defaulters with stringent measures.
He said that government would soon launch “Operation show your building plan” and embark on awareness campaign in all the local government areas in the state.
Karounwi said that officials of the ministry would be meeting stakeholders, while those with buildings without plan would be made to do necessary regularization to ensure safety of lives and property.
According to him, government will not wait for any calamity to befall the state before taking necessary actions.
On flooding, the commissioner reiterated the Gov. Abiodun Oyebanji-led administration’s commitment to ensuring that residents were not allowed to build structures that would disturb free flow of water, thus leading to avoidable cases of flooding.
“If you look around, you will see that we have lots of planning problems in the state, particularly, Ado-Ekiti.
“People just put up buildings and structures indiscriminately without any regard to the building code and the Urban and Regional Planning Law of 2011.
“We want to send the right signal to Ekiti people that never again would anybody, no matter how highly placed, be allowed to put anything without obtaining approved building plan.
“Anybody who does that automatically becomes a criminal because it is in contravention of the law and the ministry will not hesitate to take such individuals to court.
“What we did today was just the starting point and the ministry is not going to relent,” he said.
The commissioner said that the ministry had hitherto contacted the owners several times for them to do the needful.
“The truth of the matter is that before you embark on any development, the ministry must approve it.
“But in this instance, the owners of the structures refused to seek necessary approval and so, government was not aware of the type of structures they were erecting,” he said. (NAN). READ ALSO:
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