The Ogun State government has asked owners of houses built on drainage channels statewide and marked for demolition for obstructing the flow of water to remove them voluntarily.
The government threatened to demolish the structures at a cost payable by the house owners.
The Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya gave the warning when he led a state government multi- sectoral team on flood mitigation and control to assess the impact of urban flooding in the Ikenne Local Government Area of the state.
According to him, if the owners of the marked buildings have been given enough notices and ultimatum wait for the state government to remove the property.
He said the house owners will pay the state government “for using the tax- payers to remove it for them and further face possible penalty as the government will drag them court for contravening the state Environmental Laws.”
He directed the affected house owners to remove their structures in order to avoid sanctions.
Oresanya also directed house owners in the state to channel their wastewater properly by constructing and maintaining tertiary drains in front of their houses or showing evidence of wastewater retention tanks to complement the state government’s efforts at constructing and maintaining primary and secondary trunks to avoid sanctions.
“Any house owner that fails to comply with this directive by allowing his or her wastewater to flow on to the roads will be penalized as the state and the local authorities will not watch them drain their waste water directly into the road thereby destroying the road infrastructure.
“We will not fold our hands and see people destroy these roads built with tax payers money. If you go round the state, you will see that the state government has invested heavily in this road infrastructure in the interest of the public and one of the key things that destroy them is this habit of our people which must stop forthwith,” Oresanya added.
