Ogun State House of Assembly has passed a resolution directing the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development to as a matter of urgency order the appropriate department responsible for the processing of building approval to process and issue building approval to Polysmart Packaging Limited within fifteen working days from the passage of this resolution.

The passage of the resolution followed a motion moved by the Majority Leader, seconded by the Chief Whip, Tinuke Bello, shortly after the presentation of the report of the House Committee on Justice, Ethics and Public Petitions by its Chairman, Solomon Osho, who thereafter moved the motion for its adoption, seconded by Hon. Damilola Soneye and supported by other lawmakers at a plenary presided over by Speaker Olakunle Oluomo at the Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

The Assembly equally noted from its findings and observation that Polysmart Company had satisfied all requirements as confirmed by the representative of the Ministry, in addition to a series of documentary evidence, which included the C of O signed by Governor Dapo Abiodun as presented before the lawmakers by the company’s representative.

This was just as the Assembly also called on the Office of the Special Adviser/ Director General, Bureau of Lands and Survey to appropriately reconcile the issue of unregistered Certificate of Occupancy allegedly issued to Springtime Development foundation in 2007 upon the payment of all required payments and documentations.

The report partly reads, “having carefully considered the findings and observations during interrogations of the parties involved in the issue, the Committee is of the opinion that the prayers contained in the petition is not to determine the rightful owner of the land under contention or otherwise, but rather, to resolve the issue of “delayed investment project’ of the petitioner due to the refusal of the officials of State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, to process and issue a building approval to the petitioner.

To the committee, this is an action that has evidently resulted to huge loss of returns on investment to the petitioner and also depriving the innocent youths of Ogun State access to gainful employment”.

According to Hon. Osho, the Committee held meetings with all concerned parties including the respondents- Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Lands (Legal), Barr. Akande Emmanuel, representative of the Ministry of Urban and Physical Planning, TPL J.A Idowu, counsel to Springtime Development Foundation, Oluwatola Akindapo and the petitioner led by the Counsel to Polysmart Packaging limited, Barr. Ifeanyi Obi amongst others.

The lawmakers during the meeting observed that “the petitioner possessed and presented verified original copies of relevant documents of the land under contention to the Committee, including a signed and registered Certificate of Occupancy, as well as a Government issued Survey plan; that Springtime Development foundation presented to the Committee a duplicated copy of an unregistered Certificate of Occupancy, and failed to present any other relevant documents to support its claim as requested by the Committee during the meeting.

The Bureau of Lands and Survey probably failed to register the purported C of O issued to Springtime Development Foundation and proceeded to issue and register a new C of O to the petitioner for the same land, adding that despite the genuineness of the land documents submitted by the petitioner to the Ministry and payment of the required fee made into the coffers of the State Government to process its building approval, the SSA to the Governor on Lands (Legal) wrote and directed the Ministry to unjustly stay action on the processing of the petitioner’s building approval”.

According to the Committee Chairman, the petitioner obtained loans from financial institutions to finance the establishment of the company and had invested a sum of N4bn out of the proposed N25bn for the establishment of the PET bottles for the food grade plastic recycling company situated at Ileke Village in Omu Arogun of Obafemi Owode Local Government.

“The petitioner had purchased and shipped heavy industrial equipment from Austria and Italy into the country to commence the project and in the process; it expended a whopping sum of N250m on customs import duties alone. The heavy duty industrial machines imported into the country by the petitioner for the project have been kept under the rain and sun for so long and it stands the risk of being stolen or damaged, due to the refusal of the ministry to process as well as issue the building approval to the petitioner on the directive of the SSA to the governor on Lands (Legal)”

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.