Premium Steel and Mines Limited, current owners and operators of the defunct Delta Steel Company, Ovwian-Aladja, Delta State, has again cautioned land speculators and property developers to be wary of landed property acquired by the Federal Government of Nigeria for the purpose of developing the largest integrated steel complex in sub-Sahara Africa, adding that those making use of desperate vendors and building on federal government acquired lands risks losing their investments as the Federal Government can start to take action anytime.
The Director of Legal Affairs, Premium Steel and Mines Limited, Barr Emmanuel Agbaje, in a statement issued to newsmen on Thursday, stated that all the land on both sides and around the expressway from Igbiki and NBTC Junction to the Steel Plant are for the Federal Government and the aim is to develop and expand the Delta Steel Company.
According to him, there are subsisting courts injunctions stopping land speculators from trespassing on the aforementioned property and very soon action shall be taken against those building on the land.
Barr Agbaje disclosed that Premium Steel and Mines Limited have always warned land speculators from encroaching on those lands as they belong to the federal government and whoever refuses to listen to these warnings will soon face problems.
He said: “As we stated in our earlier warnings, the Federal Government which acquired those land did not at any time release the land to anybody for sale to land speculators.
“Those running from one court to the other in search of judicial pronouncement to back their sinister activities should understand that when the Federal Government bulldozers start pulling down those structures, PSML should not be blamed for the loss of their investment. They shall surely reap the whirlwind in due course.
“We are repeating these warnings so nobody would blame us when things start happening. Our newspaper publications and advertorials at huge cost to us will stand as witnesses against the trespassers. Nobody is above the law. However good your case is, if you flout valid court orders there must be consequences.
“It can take five, ten or even twenty years for the government to act. Act they must someday and when the bulldozers start coming, ignorance of the real owner (Federal Government of Nigeria) will not spare the illegally acquired property from the bulldozers.
“Government is already aware of the situation and it may act anytime soon. Buildings as tall as ten-storey edifices have been brought down by government bulldozers in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of the country.
“Let me repeat for the umpteenth time, stay away from DSC lands in and around the steel plant and other locations in Delta state so as not to lose your investments. Government is aware of the dubious activities of those encroaching on the lands and very soon, the federal government will come and take over that which they already acquired many years ago.”
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