Amid conflicts and attacks by land speculators on its construction workers building the multi –million naira mega filling station,the Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company (NIPCO) Plc , a major downstream sector operator in oil and gas industry, has vowed to deliver the project.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the mega filling station planned by the company at Abule –Ado on the ever busy Lagos –Badagry Expressway has been under siege by some land speculators demanding repayment of the land acquired by the indigenous oil and gas giant.
Speaking with our correspondent at the weekend in Lagos , Mr. Taofik Lawal, Manager, NIPCO Plc,said that there was no going back on the company’s plans to build the mega filling station which he said was designed to solve the perennial problems of petroleum products’ scarcity in that axis of the State.
He explained that the land for the project was legally acquired by the company, and the required documents to it had been perfected at the relevant government agencies.
The NIPCO spokesman who threw light on why the project which elicited excitement from residents in that area had been stalled, said:“One self styled monarch, Lateef Sadiku Olarinde, and his group has obstructed the ongoing construction of the multi – million naira mega station along Lagos-Badagry Express way.”
Lawal said Olarinde and his group had cultivated the habit of attacking construction workers on site, adding that the group claimed to be the original land owners of the land in that locality .
He said that the land in question was part of the global acquisition by the federal government in which some parts were later excised to rightful owners.