Ogun set to deliver 250 housing units at Buhari Estate before year end — Gov. Abiodun

Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta

Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun has said that his administration will make available, about 250 semi-detached and fully detached duplex houses at the President Muhammad Buhari (PMB) Estate along Kobape road, Abeokuta before the end of the year.

Governor Abiodun, who made this known during an inspection of the first phase of the 60 mixed development scheme at Kobape, Abeokuta, on Thursday, said that the project when completed would have a recreation park, shopping center, and security post among other facilities.

“I am sure that between now and the end of this year, we will have nothing less than 200 to 250 units that will be completed here with the complementary landscape and all other pieces of furniture that are required to make this place an ideal place to live,” he said.

Abiodun, while disclosing that the project is among several inherited from the past administration, noted that the contractor, who according to him had taken the state government to court and was about to get a judgment against the state, has been paid off.

The Governor also stated that his administration began the installmental payoff of the outstanding amount unpaid by the immediate past administration.

“A lot of taxpayers’ money was spent on this project. Before we assumed office, the infrastructure contract had been awarded, basically the road network and the street lightning poles that you saw here.

“However, the contractor was never paid. By the time we assumed office, the contractor had taken us to court. We didn’t even realize it because the previous administration had left the matter in court unattended to.

“So, when we assumed office, the contractor was about to be given judgment against the state. So, we had to scramble, wade into it, work out an amicable settlement with the contractor and began an installmental payoff of the amount outstanding.

“So, the Dapo Abiodun administration paid off the contractor,” he said.

The Governor, while calling on prospective investors to take advantage of the discount available on the properties, said that his administration does not want the property to continue to remain idle as it had been in the last six to seven years.

“I expect them to come and start paying now because I am not involved in the direct sales. But, I am sure that our team has a plan where if you pay now while the construction is going on, you get some sort of discount.

“If you wait till it is finished, of course, you will pay a premium. So, I want to encourage the public to take advantage of the discount; you better come and pay now. We are a promise keeping administration.

“The development that we did across from the Governor’s Office, the King’s Court, that was a success. It was a success that it was not only sold out; we had more buyers than the units we built. So, I don’t want to put a time frame on when you should pay; it is up to you to come and pay,” he said.

He also disclosed that his administration came up with a Public Private Partnership program where people were invited to express interest to partner with the state.

“We invited people to come and express interest to partner with us, and that expression of interest was finalised with a template that we allocate a parcel to you, you come and develop it, and you and the government jointly sell and share the proceeds.

“That proceed will be shared in a fashion where our partner is able to recover its invested funds and whatever margin that has been agreed with our property investment corporation and of course government on its part is able to realise that much that accrues to it from what would have been the sale of the land,” he said.

The immediate past Special Adviser and General Manager of the Ogun State Property Investment Corporation (OPIC); Mr. Abiodun Fari disclosed that the state government is looking at the next nine months for the delivery of the units under construction.

He added that phase one of the project would be used to unlock the value of land in the estate.