Following protest by subscribers, the Department of State Service (DSS) has said that the indigenes from whom it purchased lands for the proposed DSS housing estate in Ibadan are responsible for the delay in allocating lands to subscribers.
The service in a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday explained that the indigenes approached the court, suing the cooperative, the DSS, and Attorney General of the Federation, demanding that the sale of lands in the estate be stopped.
The service, while insisting that compensation was duly paid to the original owners by the service, added that the action of the indigenes disrupted the exercise.
The DSS cooperative while explaining that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with a consultant, A-ONE Executive Professional Services Ltd to execute the project, however, regretted that the consultant has not remitted any of the money collected from the subscribers to the cooperative account.
It further pointed out that there was a breach of the MoU by the vendor, which led the Service Management directing Oyo State Command to explore ways of resolving the issue with both the public subscribers and the agent.
It remarked that the above-mentioned challenges were responsible for the delay in the allocation of the lands to the subscribers.
The statement read: “The attention of the Management Committee of the Community Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society (Comcoop) has been drawn to the protest by public subscribers to the Elenunsoso Comcoop Housing project, Ibadan Oyo State.
“The true position is that the Co-operative was given a portion of land at Elenunsoso, Ido LGA, Ibadan Oyo State by the Service as take-off grant. The Land is 20.334 hectares, covered by the Certificate of Statutory Right of Occupancy duly signed by Oladayo Popoola (Col.), the then Military Governor of Oyo State.
“The Comcoop Management Committee acting on the report of the Technical Committee on Elenunsoso Land earmarked the Land for three (3) categories of subscribers; Comcoop members, Non-Comcoop members and outsiders respectively. Having obtained Service Management’s approval to sell to the three (3) categories above, the Comcoop Management Committee engaged the Services of A-ONE Professional Executive Services Limited to sell the portion meant for the members of the public.
“Consequently, the Co-operative signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with A-ONE Executive Professional Services Ltd for a period of six (6) months,” it said.
“However, after a few months into the execution of the MoU, the indigenes whom the land was originally acquired from rush to court suing the cooperative, the service and attorney general of the federation asking it to stop the service and cooperative from selling the land to members of the public that the land was acquired in the overriding public interest, hence should not be sold to any member of the public even though it has been established that compensation was duly paid to the owners by the service.
“This disrupted the exercise and the service through the Legal services Dept were made to represent the cooperative and the service in court.
“While this was going on, there was a breach of the M.O.U by the vendor, which led the Service Management directing Oyo State Command to explore ways of resolving the issue with both the Public subscribers and the Agent (A-ONE Professional Executive Services Limited).
“Meanwhile, till date, A-ONE has not remitted A DIME out of the money he collected from members of the public to the coffers of the Co-operative until the expiration of the MOU on 13th January 2021”.
