Ogun Demolishes Gbenga Daniel Wife’s Plaza

The Ogun State govern­ment early on Sunday un­dertook demolition of the five-story DATKEM Plaza on Folagbade Street, Ijebu Ode, owned by the wife of former Governor Gben­ga Daniel, Yeye Olufunke Daniel.

Construction of the structure, which is said to have full approval, started in 2009 and it’s scheduled for commissioning at the end of September.

Ogun government has described the demolished structure as an illegal one without an approved plan.

This was contained in a statement signed by the state Permanent Secre­tary, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Devel­opment, Engr. Olayiwola Abiodun, made available to newsmen on Sunday.

The state government stated that it contravened the state’s physical plan­ning laws and violated the building codes of the state with numerous defects.

Engr. Abiodun disclosed that the state government made several efforts to halt further development on site but was ignored by the developers.

He said government of­ficials requested the struc­tural engineer in charge of the building to avail the state of the structural equi­librium of the building, a request that was ignored.

The statement read fur­ther that in view of vari­ous incidences of building disasters across the coun­try, the state government would not fold its arm and allow such occurrence.

Citing fire outbreaks at Ikorodu, which led to the loss of precious lives, the permanent secretary stated that what the government did in partially pulling down the defective building was to be proactive.

He, however, challenged the owners of the structure to produce evidence of gov­ernment approval in their possession.

Engr. Abiodun added that “for a commercial building of that status, there must be parking space to accommodate ve­hicular traffic within and outside the facility for workers and visitors. The provision of the law is for 45 to 50 percent of available land for construction as a buildable area.

“The building lacked stage certification, which is usually issued at every stage of construction.

“The owners were served the necessary notices, in­cluding abatement, con­travention, stop work and demolition between May and October 2022, which were ignored.”

The statement read fur­ther that “DATKEM Enter­prises Limited submitted application for an office building, located along Ibadan Road, Ijebu Ode in 2009 with registration num­ber CB/05/299/2009.

“The proposal was for five floors with airspace of 3 metres at the right, 5m at the left, 5metres at the rear and a setback of 32.5516 me­tres to the middle of Ijebu Ode/Ibadan road, Ijebu- Ode.

“The Zonal Town Plan­ning Office observed during routine monitor­ing that the construction on site did not conform to the plan granted as there was a deviation from the airspaces and setback.

“In addition, the build­ing had been modified and enlarged with an addition­al storey building at the back thereby becoming over density.

“In view of the above, the following actions were taken:

“Contravention notice with Serial No. 0106983 was served on 24th May 2022.

“Stop Work Order with Serial No. 000623 was served on 24th May 2022.

“Another Stop Work Or­der with Serial No. 001065 was served on 22nd July 2022 when the first notice was ignored.

“Demolition notice with Serial No. 0007549 was served on 11th October 2022.

“Notice to seal with Seri­al No. 000815 was served on 4th October 2022.”

According to the state, “Despite all these notices, the developer was recalci­trant and continued with the construction work.

“This prompted the re-sealing of the site on 1st August, 2023. But the seal­ing did not stop the devel­oper from further construc­tion as work continued on the site.

“However, the developer wrote an appeal for unseal­ing, which was considered so as to evacuate the be­longings in the premises. Thereafter, quit notice with Serial No. 0030750 was served on 31st August, 2023.

“In view of the above, since the developer had remained recalcitrant, the Zonal Town Planning Of­fice’s recommendation for the demolition of the office building was upheld.”

Therefore, the state government reiterated its avowed commitment to ensure the safety of its citizens, adding that any defective buildings in any part of the state would be demolished to safeguard the lives of the people.

However, in a statement on Sunday, Olusegun Law­al, the Project Manager and Developer for the building, noted that the demolition of the five-storey build­ing was carried out about 3:00a.m. on Sunday.

He added that, as the de­veloper of the building, ev­erything that was required from state government offi­cials was done.

“We’ve done what was needed from our side. They complained of con­travention and we made an amendment to the ap­proval, submitted since last year. This is a building that’s almost two years old now. Every queries raised, we answered them.

“When they partially sealed us, they asked us to pay an unsealing fee of half a million (N500,000) which I paid. They received it and the next thing they did was to give us a letter in which they said within 24 hours, the amendment submitted doesn’t confirm with what we’re building,” Lawal added.

According to reports, Gbenga Daniel, who is also the incumbent senator rep­resenting Ogun East, is ru­moured to have a rift with the governor, which is al­leged to have been respon­sible for the action.

It was unclear when the rift began, as Daniel backed Abiodun for gov­ernor in 2019. But as 2023 election drew closer, there were suggestions that Daniel didn’t openly back Abiodun’s reelection, but instead worked quietly to support Ladi Adebutu, the candidate of Peoples Dem­ocratic Party (PDP).