Ogun govt, Dangote on war path over demolition of primary school
The Ogun State government has expressed dissatisfaction with Dangote Cement for allegedly demolishing a primary school in the state without informing any of the state government agencies.
Elefon Primary School, in Ewekoro Local Government Area of the state, was pulled down for standing within the mining area of the company.
An angry member of the state House of Assembly, representing Ewekoro state constituency, Yusuf Amosun, raised concerns over the development at plenary, on Tuesday.
The lawmaker insisted that the company demolished the school without informing any government agency under the guise that the school was within their newly acquired mining jurisdiction.
Upon this complaint, Speaker of the Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo, condemned the demolition of the school.
The House leader has now constituted an ad-hoc Committee to be chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Bolanle Ajayi, with Seun Adesanya, Lukmon Atobatele and Sunday Wasiu, as members, to engage all concerned parties on the matter and report to the Assembly.
When contacted, the Commissioner for Education, Abayomi Arigbabu, confirmed the development, saying the company had obstructed the school premises some time back but the government quickly waded in.
The Commissioner said Governor Dapo Abiodun had insisted that the company “must not do anything within the school premises” but expressed surprise that the company has now gone ahead to demolish the same school.
When asked if he was aware that the company had a licence to mine in and around the school, Mr Arigbabu said the government was not aware of such a licence.
“The government owns the school and that was why we stopped them when we heard of it initially.”
Calls and messages of enquiry sent to both the company’s Special Duty and External Affairs Officer, Yomi Gbadebo and the Media and Communication manager, Francis Brown, were not responded to.
Residents of the Elefon community are, however, begging the government to as a matter of urgency rebuild the school within the shortest possible time.
