By IKHILI EBALU, BENIN CITY.
Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki, has disclosed that all land acquired by the state government are targeted at creating employment and improving livelihoods of the citizenry in the state.
He said this in Benin on Tuesday at the correspondents’ chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State council 2021 annual lecture in reaction to allegation that state governors use the Act to acquire land for themselves and their cronies.
Represented by his Special Adviser on media projects, Crusoe Osagie, said the reason behind the government’s acquisition of lands is for the overall benefits of the people of the state.
” Edo state government does not acquire property for itself but the people. All decision in that lines is always in the best interest of the state”
Speaking on the theme, “Menace of land grabbing and the threat to public peace”, a human right activist, Dele Igbinedion, a Benin-based, advocated repeal of land use Act which vested land on the state government.
He listed government, through the instrument of Land Use Act, law enforcement agencies, legal system, communities as some of the issues militating against addressing land grabbing.
Earlier, the correspondents’ chairman, Mrs. Nefishetu Yakubu, said the topic was chosen in order to find solution to the menace of land grabbing because of its attendant effect, especially to the poor people.
He said though land grabbing” is a national challenge, land-related crisis has become endemic in Edo state, as buying a piece of land and developing the property had become a herculean task in the state,