The Ogun State Government has begun the clearing of illegal structures within the industrial clusters of the State, with the aim of stopping distortion of the originally designated industrial layout.

The exercise was carried out by joint efforts of officials of the Special Land Task Force of the Bureau of Lands and Survey and the Central Monitoring Unit of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development as a result of the illegal land occupation and structures which had neither documentation nor building permit.

Stressing the importance of the exercise, the Director-General of the Bureau of Lands and Survey, Arc. Segun Fowora, said that the Bureau in conjunction with Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development had served the occupants of the illegal structures several notices of contraventions, but the owners and developers continued construction business without compliance.

Arc. Fowora, according to the Bureau’s Press Officer, Ms. Temitope Adewunmi, appealed to prospective land buyers not to buy government-owned land along the major highways in the State without verifying from the office of the Director-General of Lands and Survey, adding that the State government had acquired 1.5 kilometre corridor from Abeokuta/Sagamu interchange, Lagos/Ibadan expressway, Lagos-Benin/Ore roads and other highways along the corridor of the state for future development purposes.

He also noted the government would no longer tolerate indiscriminate encroachment of lands without due documentation, stating that companies should be mindful of purchasing land from land grabbers who might offer false assurances or fake documents.