Fireworks in Ogun

• Abiodun, Amosun trade tackles over housing estate

By Lukman Olabiyi

Former Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has taken a strong exception to claims by the administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun that it rescued the President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) Estate in Abeokuta, describing the narrative as a distortion of the state’s documented history.

Amosun, who governed Ogun State between 2011 and 2019, said the estate was not an abandoned or imperilled project awaiting rescue when he left office, but a comprehensively conceived and substantially developed government initiative whose land had been acquired, master-planned and provided with critical infrastructure under his administration.

He challenged the Abiodun administration to provide specific details of the alleged crisis that supposedly threatened the property, including the identity of any party that sought to take over the estate, the legal process involved and the nature of any outstanding financial obligation.

Amosun said his decision to remain silent in the face of what he described as repeated distortions of his administration’s record had been deliberate, motivated by a desire to preserve the peace and dignity of Ogun State: “Silence could no longer be allowed to become an accomplice to deception, particularly where the claims impugned the integrity of his administration.

“Governance cannot remain a perpetual press conference about one’s predecessor. Every administration must ultimately be judged by what it achieves during its own tenure rather than by continually revisiting the record of the government before it.”

The estate occupies approximately 500 hectares of acquired land along the Abeokuta-Sagamu Expressway. Its first phase covered about 170 hectares, with roughly 50 hectares developed as the pilot scheme.

Amosun explained that the original vision was to establish a Three-Arms Zone that would accommodate residential facilities for the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, while also providing premium residential opportunities for private subscribers and high-net-worth individuals.

He pointed to the new Ogun State Judicial Complex opposite the estate as part of the broader development plan: “The complex was deliberately located in proximity to the proposed Judges’ Quarters. A bypass was also planned to provide convenient access between the judicial complex and the estate.”

One of Amosun’s central claims is that the infrastructure within the pilot section of the estate had reached approximately 95 per cent completion by May 2019: “This was not merely an assertion but a matter recorded in the formal handover documents of the supervising ministry. The infrastructure contract was valued at approximately ₦3.5 billion and the contractor, ZCC, had been fully mobilised.

“Funds sufficient to complete the outstanding works were available at the point my administration handed over power. The infrastructure included a network of 43 roads, street lighting, electricity infrastructure, water-distribution systems, drainage networks, a central sewage system, gas supply lines and fibre-optic cable ducts.

“If the contractor had been fully mobilised, the infrastructure was already approximately 95 per cent complete, and sufficient funds remained available for the outstanding work. Who then took the government to court and threatened seizure or forfeiture, and for what reason?”

The former governor also invoked the events of February 2016 as evidence of the extent of development already achieved at the estate.

He recalled that during Ogun State’s 40th anniversary celebrations, then-President Muhammadu Buhari visited the estate, commissioned the development and drove through its tarred roads while the streetlights were operational.

Buhari was subsequently hosted to a state banquet at the estate, Amosun recalled.

For the former governor, the events were difficult to reconcile with any portrayal of the property as an estate without meaningful infrastructure.

He argued that a location supposedly devoid of roads, electricity, drainage, water, sewage and access infrastructure could hardly have served as the venue for such high-level state events.

Amosun also raised concerns about individuals who had acquired plots within the estate before the change of administration.

He said plots had been legitimately sold, Certificates of Occupancy issued, development approvals granted and, in some cases, construction commenced before May 2019.

He expressed particular concern about reports that some of the affected allottees were Nigerians living in the diaspora.

“What has happened to them?” he asked, questioning whether existing allottees whose interests predated the current administration had been adequately protected.

According to him, lawful purchasers should not be left facing uncertainty over access to, possession of or development on land they legitimately acquired from government.

The former governor also challenged the government to identify, in concrete terms, the new infrastructure or facilities it introduced to the estate.

“Is it the road network, electricity, drainage, access, sewage system or what precisely?” he asked.

Amosun acknowledged the significance of the 108 housing units recently commissioned at the estate but argued that the development should not be presented as though it constituted the rescue or creation of the estate itself.

He claimed that the 108-unit project occupies less than one hectare of the approximately 50 hectares on which infrastructure had already been provided under his administration.

More significantly, he alleged that the housing development was located within an area originally designated for a primary school.

The former governor also disputed the impression that the Access Bank Training School represented an entirely new conception under the current administration.

He said the project had been conceived during his tenure, with land already allocated and paid for by Access Bank at the Abeokuta City Centre, beside the GTBank Training School building.

According to Amosun, the project was subsequently relocated to an area originally designated for the Executive Arm of Government within the Three-Arms Zone.

He argued that such changes raised fundamental questions about the integrity of the original master plan.

“If the master plan has been substantially altered,” he said in effect, “then the government owes the public an explanation of what became of the original Three-Arms Zone and the purposes for which its various components were designated.”

At the heart of Amosun’s intervention is a demand for a comprehensive account of the entire 500-hectare property, rather than a focus on the portion where new houses have been constructed.

He wants the Ogun State Government to disclose how much of the land remains intact, how much has been allocated, what portions have been developed, which areas have been re-designated and whether any sections have become subject to encroachment or litigation.

For Amosun, a genuine rescue of a public asset must encompass the protection and proper management of the entire property, not simply the development and commissioning of a small portion of it.

He also maintained that government is a continuum, arguing that completing, upgrading or modifying inherited projects should ordinarily be regarded as responsible governance rather than presented as evidence that previous administrations accomplished nothing.

“What is unnecessary and entirely unacceptable is the attempt to diminish what existed before merely to magnify what came after,” he said.

Amosun insists that the documentary record will ultimately settle the controversy.

His position is that the PMB Estate had already been conceived, acquired, master-planned, funded, substantially developed and inaugurated before the Abiodun administration assumed office in May 2019.

He is therefore demanding answers on two central issues: the status of existing allottees whose plots and titles predated the present administration, and the fate of the hundreds of hectares that constitute the greater part of the estate.

Amosun argues, the description of the project as having been rescued remains a political narrative rather than a complete account of the estate’s history.

The former governor’s intervention marks a significant escalation in the dispute over ownership of the political credit for one of Ogun State’s major urban-development projects.

For Amosun, the issue is no longer simply about who commissioned which building, but about the integrity of official records and the obligation of successive administrations to preserve the historical facts surrounding public projects.

“Ogun State deserves better than governance by historical revisionism,” he declared, insisting that the people are entitled to a truthful account of how public assets were acquired, developed, transferred and subsequently managed.

He added that he would no longer allow restraint to be interpreted as consent to what he considers a misleading version of the state’s history.