The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development in Lagos State, Dr Idris Salako, has said no approval has been granted for housing development in the green belt area of Magodo in the Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area of the state.
Salako said this in a rejoinder to an article that the ministry might have secretly given a nod to a consortium made up of suspected land-grabbers, a real estate firm and the traditional authorities to develop an estate in the flood-prone green belt between Magodo phases 1 and 2.
Members of the Gateway Zone Community Development Association in Magodo have vehemently opposed the development of the estate.
PUNCH Metro had reported that the Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Lands, Adedamola Kasunmu, had stated during a press briefing at the Assembly complex that the reports he got from various government agencies, including the Drainage Service Department of the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, and the New Towns Development Authority, indicated that developmental projects could be done in the green belt if the drainage channel was upgraded. (Text and photo courtesy Punch)