The Journalist Estate Residents Development Association (JERDA) has denied blocking an access road on Journalists Estate Phase One, Arepo, in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.
JERDA noted that instead, an arch it installed to restore the estate boundary with the permission of the state Ministry of Works, was demolished by hoodlums.
The hoodlums allegedly acted on the orders of a neighbouring estate association, Beachland Estate Residents Association (BERA), and the Olu of Arepo, Oba Atanda Oyebi.
Earlier reported that JERDA petitioned the state Governor, Dapo Abiodun, over the destruction of the arch.
JERDA, in a statement by its Chairman, Olufunke Fadugba, on Friday, explained that the estate had always had the arch since 2003, adding that it was demolished to pave way for the road construction going on in Arepo.
She said upon the near completion of the road, the estate approached the government on its intent to erect the arch back.
The statement read in part, “The Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, in giving its approval, also assigned a site engineer to supervise the reinstallation for purposes of compliance with specifications. The approval from the Ministry of Works explicitly notes that the road should remain a thoroughfare.
“The reinstallation of the arch was done on February 7, under the watchful eyes of the ministry’s engineer. The honourable commissioner for works, in the course of the installation work in progress, visited to ascertain compliance. Note that all this while, Beachland Estate had its two entrance gates in place with one directly on the same road they claimed should remain a thoroughfare.
“However, in the morning of February 8, 2022, some hoodlums in the company of the Olu of Arepo’s chiefs came to uproot the base of the arch which had no form of barrier, with axes and diggers. On realising the steel arch would require more than their manual effort, they left. Then a resident of Beachland Estate, one Emmanuel, soon after, led an Ayab truck into the estate with the backing of the same hoodlums and chiefs, to wilfully pull down the steel arch.
“The nearly 500 households on the Journalists Estate Phase One see the act of both residents of Beachland Estate and the chiefs of Arepo as a continuation of the constant threats and harassment from the two parties in connivance with the Olu of Arepo. It is, in addition, a demonstration of lawlessness and affront to the state government.”
On the access road, the group said, “The access of everyone through the Journalists Estate Phase One, including residents and non-residents, is subjected to security checks in this period of insecurity and should never be classified or misconstrued as humiliation by any law abiding citizen.”
JERDA noted that a meeting the parties held with representatives of the state Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development last Thursday was a follow-up to an earlier meeting held by the ministry with both the estates and the palace in Abeokuta in 2021.
The estate clarified that the meeting was over the resistance of BERA to the erection of another bar .
“The ‘status quo’ said to have been agreed to at the meeting of February 10, 2022 was to maintain a barless exit out of Journalists Estate Phase One until the ongoing road work is completed,” JERDA added.