The Oyo State Government has described rumours making the rounds that it has allocated Agodi Botanical Gardens to a proposed Housing Estate, as baseless and untrue.
The Commissioner for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Williams Akin Funmilayo said that mischief makers are trying to bring the State Government into an unnecessary distraction and nullify the laudable achievements recorded so far.
He disclosed further that the Government values reforestation and afforestation, and as such, would not convert Agodi gardens into a residential Estate.
He added that the large expanse of land to be converted to Baywood Estate does not include the Agodi Botanical Gardens.
The Commissioner also said the State Government has plans to upgrade the garden to an international standard, such that it will compete with other botanical gardens across the globe.
Therefore, Akin- Funmilayo re-echoed that the Governor did not give any order to his office for the conversion of Agodi Gardens to Housing Estate.
He recalled that the Agodi Botanical Gardens was created in the year 1967, but was destroyed by the Ogunpa flood disaster in 1980 by the raging water but got renovated in 2012 and reopened in 2014 as a tourist attraction in the ancient city of Ibadan.
