The Ogun State Government has warned allottees of the Ibara Regeneration Scheme not to sell their allocated land, as doing so would defeat the purpose of the scheme.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abeokuta recently, the Commissioner for Housing, Jagunmolu Omoniyi, said the state government intended to give the state a world-class new city that would be the pride of all.
According to him, the state government planned to recreate Banana Island or Parkview Estates in Ogun State with the Ibara scheme as the starting point.
He reiterated that the current administration’s vision was to revolutionise housing in the state, saying the Ibara land allocation came with a requirement for allottees to start construction immediately.
He further warned that any attempt to resell the land would result in immediate revocation.
He said, “This administration intends to create another estate that will be better than Banana Island. We want to create another Abeokuta where our sons and daughters who live abroad, in Lagos or Abuja, can find a place they can call their own instead of sleeping in hotels whenever they visit.
“The agreement is that you will not buy the property for speculative purposes. We will not allow anyone to buy and resell those plots. As a matter of fact, 60 days from today, you must start developing your plot.
“If you don’t, there is an agreement under oath that everyone has signed. We will revoke those plots no matter how highly placed you are. If you deviate from the agreement, we will go ahead and revoke and re-allocate to another person.”
Giving a background of the Ibara Estate, Omoniyi said a total of 232 bungalows made up of two and three bedrooms were built at the creation of Ogun State to provide accommodation to civil servants who were moved from Ibadan, noting that the location was chosen because of its closeness to Oke-Ilewo, where the state secretariat located as at then.
He said massive development had taken place in Government Reservation Areas in states that were part of the old western region except Ibara GRA, which was still underdeveloped.
“By not developing this estate, we deny ourselves the value that this land brings to our state. Ibara Estate sits on 32 hectares of land valued at over N20bn in today’s value and this is what the state government has decided to turn into a world-class city that this generation can be proud to associate with.
“We realised that many people have bought into the GRA scheme since the 1970s, but what we have also realised is the fact that rather than the value going up, the value remains stagnant because there is no new development, no innovation and this is de-marketing your assets. But with the little intervention we have done in the last three months, I’m sure those of you who have assets here know that the value would have been more than double.
“A plot of land that was barely sold for about N25m now goes for about N50m to N60m,” the commissioner added.
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