Peace Oladapo 
The Benue State Urban Development Board has razed down over 40 unlawful constructions that were defacing major roads and streets in Makurdi, the state capital.
The board has since identified and designated over 800 dwellings built on waterways and drainages for demolition in the Makurdi metropolis.
Mede Ternongo, General Manager of the State Urban Development Board and Town Planner made this known while speaking with newsmen on Thursday in Makurdi.
According to him, the exercise was part of Governor Hyacinth Alia’s intention to revitalize the state capital, and the board had been tasked with restoring the city to its former glory.
Ternongo reported that during the first part of the exercise, they were able to dismantle around 40 shanties throughout town and open routes that were previously obstructed by developers in the State.
He stated that the activity would continue in areas where developers were obstructing access roads and would encompass the entire Makurdi city.
“We intend to open the roads, major access routes in the city.
“We just started with the Southbank area of Makurdi and very soon we will move to north bank area of Makurdi.
“If you go to north bank area around the Catholic Church, you will see containers lying on the fence and it has reduced the road side and defaced the environment.
“Enough notices were served on the affected people because we don’t remove or demolish any property without giving notification.
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“This time around, we involved the media. We did radio announcement for two weeks informing the general public about this and told the owners of those shanties to remove them.
“Therefore, the notice has been there for more than two months before we embarked on today’s exercise.
“The governor has graciously provided us with necessary logistics to be able to carry out this exercise.
“The governor has promised to give us bulldozer and payloader and operational vehicles to ease our jobs.
“I have discussed with the governor on the need to build a GSM village for the mobile phone dealers and I believe after this exercise I will go back to the governor and see how we can commence the building of the village.
“We have identified the spot and I have told him and he accepted.
“We have identified the spot and I have told him and he accepted.
“We have about 800 houses built on water ways and have been earmarked for demolition.
“Just recently, we visited a community around the naval road in Kashio layout and all the buildings that were located around the water ways and drainages were touched and we opened channel for water”, Ternongo stated.
He recommended developers to always get approval from the board before they commence on erecting any building to avoid spreading of unlawful buildings that could create obstruction of drainages and flooding in the state.
