The Governor Monday Okpeholo-led administration in Edo State, on Thursday, said it has uncovered and sealed a brothel inside a primary school in Esan West local government area of the State.
The State Coordinator for the Protection of Government Property (PGP), Hon. Eugene Okolosie, who disclosed this at a press conference in Benin City, also disclosed that over 2,000 plots of land encroached upon have also been recovered from land grabbers in the state.
He noted that so far over 150,000 houses in the state were built on government lands and appealed to those who wanted to acquire landed property to clear from the Edo Geographic Information Service (Edo GIS) to avoid falling victims to the criminal activities of land grabbers and speculators.
He said, “A lot of government property have been encroached upon. 70 per cent of our moat have been taken over and the most affected is our public schools. In Ambrose Alli University (AAU) alone, we have recovered plots of land from land grabbers.
“The community came to inform us that land grabbers forged their signatures and we moved into action and recovered about 90 per cent of the land back, including lands belonging to schools.
“For example in Ujuele, primary school, they built a brothel inside the school and we have sealed the brothel and some of these property will be converted and we are presenting discussing with the governor the matter.
“In Iyoba, the community on their own shared the school into two parts and sold half of the school to individuals. You can imagine a food silo was sold, that again, investigation is underway and those suspected to be involved have been invited.”
Okolosie revealed that the agency has received over 3,000 petitions from communities regarding illegal acquisition of government property in the last two months and vowed to recover uch properties.
He further commended Governor Okpeholo for the provision of legal counsels to the agency to ensure smooth prosecution of offenders.
