Business
Bayelsa Property Owners Appeal For Compensation
Owners of land acquired by the Bayelsa State Government for the construction of the Kaima Model Secondary School in Bayelsa, have appealed to the state to compensate them without further delay.
Spokesperson of the property owners, Mr. Alawei Basuo in an interview with newsmen in Yenagoa yesterday decried the delay by the government in paying the compensation.
According to him, the schools had been completed and contractors paid, but the property owners are yet to be paid after the completion of the acquisition formalities over a year ago.
Basuo said that since the land was acquired and houses on it demolished, the owners had suffered untold hardship, following the non-payment of the compensation.
He said that government had urged land the properties owners in January, 2013, to submit their claims for assessment and payment within two weeks.
“We all complied and our claims were duly verified by the Ministry of Lands and Surveys.
“But we have not been paid even after our houses have been demolished and the sites handed over to the contractors who have been fully paid.
“It is unfair to pay contractors when the land and property owners have not been paid; we therefore appeal to the state government to settle us,” he said.
Basuo said that the property owners were now homeless and had become liabilities to their relatives who harboured them since they could not afford to build new houses.
He said that although they supported the development plan of the government, the delay had negatively affected them.
“We support the idea of development we do not wish to be seen as working against the development policy.
“Houses are usually demolished after payment of compensation, but we have remained patient all these while,” Basua said.
NAN recalls that the Bayelsa Government on January 9, 2013 revoked the rights of occupancy of all parcels of land marked for developmental projects in every part of the state.