Land Grabbing In Edo Worries Obaseki

Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, has said his government is disturbed by the high level of land grabbing in the state though it has recovered most of the lands.
Obaseki who spoke to journalists on the side during the 2022 Alaghodaro Summit in Benin City said the government is fully enforcing the Land Use Act to recover government lands and allocate them for useful development.
“Edo State has to be a modern state as our cities are fast growing into slums. We now experience a lot of land grabbing activities in Edo State following the neglect on the part of the government to ensure the workability of the Land Use Act.
“We have addressed the land grabbing issues and have reclaimed our land back and by next year, we will start selling forms to acquire the land at the new town as citizens will have the opportunity to acquire any land of their choice in the new town.”
He also said his government was taking steps to sustain the gains recorded in healthcare, education, civil service, infrastructure, security, agriculture, manufacturing and technology to ensure better livelihoods for the people and achieve economic prosperity for the state.
The governor said the government remained committed to ensuring a progressive and prosperous Edo State where all citizens were empowered to live life to the fullest.
The 2022 Alaghodaro Summit with the theme, “Edo’s Transformation: Partnerships, Resilience, Impact,” took place between November 11 and November 13.
The summit, in its sixth edition, is organised yearly in partnership with the private sector to mark the anniversary of Governor Obaseki in office and showcase the progress being recorded in transforming the state into an investment haven.
Obaseki said, “We are rebuilding our institutions, especially our public and civil service. After six years, I can confidently tell you that we now have a wonderful workforce that we can truly trust. We are working to ensure that our training institute, the John OdigieOyegun Public Service Academy meets international standards.
“At our secretariat at Sapele Road, we have done our best to ensure we have conducive atmosphere that will ensure our civil servants are efficient and productive in their work place. At Oko-Ogba Road, we have our agricultural hub for our agricultural workers and the facility at Iyaro will house anything education.
“Aside from supporting our civil and public servants, we have also extended such support to our judiciary as we have built the judges’ quarters as well as court rooms and many more.”
The governor noted that the building of the College of Agriculture was in furtherance of the government’s focus on agriculture to diversify the state’s economy.
“We have allocated over 63,000 hectares of land to seven investors for oil palm cultivation. We are carrying along all our communities. We are working tirelessly to regain our numbers.