The Oyo State governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, on Tuesday, ordered demolition of the structure that was discovered to have been housing illegal detainees in Ojoo area of Ibadan on Monday.
Makinde revealed this when he visited Olaoore Central Mosque, Ojoo, where over 259 detainees were released by the state Commissioner of Police, Shina Olukolu.
According to Makinde, who visited the venue in company of top government functionaries before going to the camp site where the released victims were being resuscitated, said “it was an eyesore and unbelievable that such facility could be going on in such an open and exposed area of the capital city.”
He further said: “What we have seen is something that we all have to condemn and this shouldn’t be happening in a modern environment. You cant use a mosque as facade to perpetrate this kind of evil.
“Yes, we have marked the entire structure for demolition, we have here the ministry of lands and urban planning and ministry of health and justice. The government will do everything that is humanly possible to ensure that this kind of thing is stamped out in our environment.
“But, there are houses around here, these are people, they see something, ideally, they should say something because this kind of things couldn’t have been going on without all of these people, particular residences around here, without them knowing about it. So, they should have reported this thing to the authorities and maybe we would have unravelled this a long time ago.
“And also, we want to encourage our people, the government, the parents and even family members, if you need to rehabilitate members of your family that are not behaving well, we have government institutions that can do that and we are trying to rehabilitate those places for the people of Oyo state.
“So, whatever is necessary, looking at the laws of our land regarding this kind of thing, we will ensure we get this place away from those people doing this kind of things within the ambit of the law. And also you have the law enforcement agencies here, all those involved are going to be prosecuted to the full extent of our law.
“For the victims, we have mobilized the ministry of women affairs and social inclusion and the social welfare agencies there. First, we need to have immediate palliative for them and then we have to look at the deeper issues and how to resettle them and reunite them with their families. We are not going to leave them alone at this point.”
