Residents in Ibeju-Lekki Protest Alleged Govt’s Demolition of 50 Houses

• Lagos Govt says, they have no claim to that land.

Residents of Oluwa community in Ibeju-Lekki have protested the marking of their houses by Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development and the demolition of their houses by Lagos State Environmental Task Force and Special Offences unit (Task Force).

The placard-carrying residents who claimed to have court judgment over the 358 hectares of land, said they were in shock when some policemen and Task Force officers, including street urchins, stormed the scene with four excavators to destroy over 50 uncompleted buildings in the community.

They lamented that life has become unbearable for them after the demolition.

A counsel to the Oluwa family, Ademola Olowoyeye, also bemoaned that the state government carried out the dastardly act, despite a warranty of possession issued to the family under Justice Ronke Harrison, who made the judgment at the Lagos State High Court on February 15, 2018.

Olowoyeye said they had secured the warranty since November 30, 2018 and alleged that the state government through the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Lands Bureau, Bode Agoro, had taken steps to block the order by barring the family from securing application for building permit from the ministry of physical planning.

The counsel also alleged that before they came for demolition last Thursday, Agoro had tried to subdue the court judgment by offering them 60 hectares of land out of the 358 hectares.

In his words “Because we want peace, we were also ready to compromise that judgment, but we will be taking 200 hectares and not 60. And we held this discussion last year November.”

Olowoyeye described the incident as heinous and uncalled for, and asked that those who perpetrated the act should be brought to book.

On his part, the Baale of the community, Olawale Oluwa, expressed worries at the rate of destruction, which the monarch said amounted to billions of naira.

The monarch also alleged that beyond the demolition, the thugs who helped the security forces to chase the residents of the community away, looted their shops and stole goods worth millions of naira.

In her reaction, the Executive Secretary, Lagos State Lands Bureau, Lolade Ajetunmobi, dismissed reports that the family has documents backing them as owners of the land, adding: “Lagos State Government has done the needful since the court said that they were not properly served.”

“Let them bring out the documents that showed that they own the land,” she added.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotosho said the land belongs to the Lagos State government, stressing that those people who occupied the land don’t have building permits to claim ownership.

Omotosho disclosed that the government, since 10 years ago, had allocated the land under a scheme ‘Abijo GRA Scheme’ to some people,  who now have the Certificate of Occupancy and permit to build on the land.

According to the Commissioner of Information “Before you build a house in Lagos, you must get a permit from the Ministry of Physical Planning, especially when houses are collapsing. It is because they don’t have building permit, that is why they went there to demolish the buildings.”