Tuesday 19 March 2013

(NEWS): Lagos pays N1billion damages, to build housing estate at Ijora/Badia







The Lagos State Government has paid over N1.025 billion as compensation to persons whose property were demolished to make way for the expansion of the Orile-Badagry, Ikorodu, Ago Palace roads as well as the Lekki/Epe Airport project, and the Re-settlement project for the Free Trade Zone, among others.
The government also announced that another batch of 1,000 allottees, who bought property from the State Housing Agencies before January 2000, will be given their Sub- Lease Registered Title Documents today, Tuesday.
Home owners are to pick up the documents at the Adeyemi Bero Auditorium of the Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja.
The Governor, Babatunde Fashola’s administration initiated the Registered Sub-Lease Title Documents process to allow house owners in Government Housing Estates get title documents, which would serve as their proof of ownership of the property and to enable them use the property for business transactions, such as securing mortgages and loans.
Already, two batches of 500 and 1,000 flat owners have received the document.
Meanwhile, the state has said it will develop 1,000 low-cost houses at Ijora/Badia, in the Apapa/Iganmu Local Council Development Area, to replace the shanties recently demolished.
The Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, said this in an interview that the proposed housing project would alleviate the plight of residents of the area who lost their homes and properties in the demolition.
“If they are legitimate houses or appropriately approved buildings that people were living in, the government would normally pay compensation, but when you have shanties all over the place and they are cleared, there is usually no compensation.
According to him, “The Ministry of Housing has a beautiful plan for the area. The state government is planning to build over 1,000 houses around there and work will soon commence on the project,” he said.
Bello said the houses would be affordable and be placed under a mortgage scheme.
“The houses are for the poor and anybody who is not poor can access them. It is going to be under a mortgage system. It is not a thing that you must have much money before you can buy.
“All the estates that the Lagos State Government has developed, we are putting together under a mortgage scheme, for people to be able to access them. What we are doing is to give the people the opportunity to own their own houses, even with the little money they have.
“The payment system will be stretched out for the convenience of the buyers, for the next 20 to 25 years,’’ he said.

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