Compensation: Residents rush to erect structures on federal highway

Several members of communities that line the over 100 kilometre stretch of the Calabar-Itu federal highway are hurrying to erect semblance of structures, supposed farms and economic trees as authorities have begun documenting and taking records for payment of compensation ahead of imminent demolition. 

The federal government recently paid compensations to those whose houses, farmlands and other ancient structures were affected by the expansion and ongoing reconstruction of the road. 

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When the minister of works, Babatunde Fashola, visited and accessed the road recently, he gave indications that work would resume once the rain subsides. 

He warned people to desist from hurrying to erect new structures as his ministry will not pay compensation for any newly built structure. 

Construction firms have since started work on the road from the Odukpani end which is to be turned into a dual carriageway. 

A community leader in Okurikang area of Odukpani LGA, Ene Okwa Ekpenyong, said: “We have information that more compensation is to be paid.  

“All families that have landed properties or ancestral lands or farms on the fringes of the highway want to  benefit from the land that the highway will claim. 

“You can see how they have all come out to put up one structure or another.  Some are building temporary concrete structures while others are using mud or bamboos. All this is to have evidence that structures were on the ground before the demolition.” 

Mr Asuquo Effiom, who has cultivated a small plantain farm on the roadside in hope for compensation when demolition team arrives, said it was important to indicate that the land belongs to his family so that compensation can also be paid instead of government claiming it free. 

A youth leader, Benjamin Efiok, in Ikot Ekpo, said if the federal government did not capture them all, they would ensure that the construction firms pay them else they may not have it easy with them.