Police, hoodlums demolish 50 Lagos buildings, victims protest

LANDLORDS and residents of Oluwa Palace group, within the Ibeju Lekki Native Authorities Space of Lagos State, have accused policemen of the Lagos State Surroundings and Particular Offences Enforcement Unit and hoodlums of demolishing their homes and rendering them homeless.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the hoodlums alongside the policemen stormed the group with bulldozers and destroyed over 50 constructions, together with homes, outlets, amongst different property price thousands and thousands of naira.

The residents, whereas lamenting over the invasion, mentioned they weren’t issued a discover for the demolition, including that individuals who misplaced their property had been traumatised over the event.

A resident locally, Olawale Yusuf, mentioned his uncle’s property was a part of the demolished property, including that over N300m was expended on the property.

He mentioned, “The property has 72 rooms and it belongs to my uncle. We’ve got spent over N300m on it. We nonetheless have some property inside and couldn’t carry them out in the course of the demolition.

“We’ve got not been in a position to carry the property out after the demolition. My uncle will not be in good situation proper now. We made our verification earlier than constructing on this land.”

A property proprietor, Monday Ajanubor, mentioned he was on a sick mattress in the course of the demolition train, including that he was planning to maneuver into his new home when the demolition occurred.

He mentioned, “As a result of my hire was about to run out, I used to be doing every part doable to make sure that I transfer into my new home on this land. I offered my automobiles to place the home so as.  Now they known as me to say that the home I spent all my life financial savings on has been demolished.”

The pinnacle of the group, Nurudeen Oluwa, mentioned the courtroom had issued a warrant of possession to his household following a authorized tussle between the household and the state authorities over the land.

He mentioned, “We took the state authorities to courtroom in 2009 when it tried to take over the land. We knew then that there was no solution to lawfully problem the federal government apart from going to courtroom.

“In 2018, the courtroom delivered judgment in our favour, and the judgment was registered at Alausa. Earlier than we moved into the land, they gave us a certificates of warrant of possession. We’ve got been residing right here since 2018, and family members additionally constructed their homes right here, till the invasion on Thursday.”

The household’s lawyer, Ademola Olowoyeye, mentioned the Everlasting Secretary, Lagos State Lands Bureau, Bode Agoro, had annoyed the efforts of the household to take pleasure in the advantages of the courtroom order.

He mentioned, “Agoro directed the ministry of bodily planning to not settle for the registration of constructing permits, together with the making of the fence. A number of purposes have been mendacity on the LASBCA workplace which they refused to deal with.

“We wrote to the Lawyer Basic of the state to make sure that the judgment was duly obeyed. He constituted a committee and made Bode Agoro the chairman of the committee. From the primary day that we had these conferences, Agoro by no means betrayed his bias towards the Oluwa household.

“After we requested him what he wished, he mentioned he would give the household 58 hectares out of 300 hectares and we felt that was not proper. The final time we held a gathering was November final 12 months, and due to his perspective, my consumer felt we must always sue him and the Lawyer Basic.”

A duplicate of the judgement delivered on January 15, 2018, was made out there to our correspondent.

 Contacted, the state Commissioner for Info, Gbenga Omotosho, mentioned, “I’m not conscious of the incident. If you will get me the courtroom order, I’ll look into it and get again to you”

The spokesperson for the taskforce, Gbadeyan Abdulraheem, when contacted, mentioned the claims of the protesters have been unfaithful.

He mentioned, “We have been at Abijo to present an govt again as much as the land grabbers’ fee and to not demolish homes. This was contained in our press launch.”