By CrossRiverWatch admin
Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade Sunday, in Calabar said the argument that the State grabbed land without compensating the dwellers will soon be cleared as the list of those whose lands are affected by the proposed Cross River superhighway will be published in two months.
The Senior Special Adviser to Ayade on Public Affairs, Tony Undiandeye disclosed this while fielding questions in a radio program, “The Dialogue With Agba Jalingo” on Hit 95.9 FM when co guest, Odey Oyama said no compensation was paid nor the list of those affected compiled by the government.
Ayade denied this, claiming that the State was in the process of re-collating data and will soon publish it when the co-host, Jonathan Ugbal cut in with the question, “When exactly should Cross Riverians be expecting this list?”.
Tony replied that, “I think that to be fair, you need to call a public hearing for those people who are affected, those people who were not captured in the first enumeration might have their complains taken in, so I think that within two months or so we would have published that list, a comprehensive list of what has been done”.
Furthermore, Tony replying to a follow up question whether the list will include the land allegedly grabbed by the government, described the issue as “contentious”, adding that, “what was envisaged by government is that we want to create new cities… the State Government had thought that when that is done (acquiring 10 kilometers either way of the road), it will be held in trust for the communities so that when we go and develop facilities for them to move in, they will move into modern facilities, move into modern communities”.
He stressed that though government will continue to acquire land legitimately, the allegations on land grab were not true as “Government cannot just wake up and acquire land like that for no just purpose” and insisted it was for “developmental control” while Odey Oyama says a revocation order was published on the CHRONICLE Newspaper of January 22, 2016 and has become law.
He argued that land does not belong to government but to the people as per section 14, sub section 2 of the constitution. He said the documentary evidence has shown it was land grab as over a million Cross Riverians have been displaced by the act.
The Dialogue With Agba Jalingo is a weekly radio program hosted by Agba Jalingo and co-hosted by Jonathan Ugbal on Hit 95.9 FM Calabar. It is aired live every Sunday from 6 to 7 PM.
The full video can be watched on Youtube by searching for the channel “The Dialogue With Agba Jalingo TV” or listen to the audio at www.thedialoguewithagbajalingo.podbean.com.
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