Lawyer Faults LASBCA’s Intended Demolition Despite Court Orders

AISHA ABUBAKAR

A Lagos-based lawyer, Barrister Kenneth Odidika, has accused the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) and the State’s Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development of a plot to dispossess him of his property in highbrow Lekki.

The Lawyer stated that from the onset, LASBCA has been struggling to find reasons to dispossess him and his neighbours of their properties and each time they countered their claims LASBCA would look for another reason to harass them.

According to Odidika, “early in December 2022, LASBCA informed us that a certain company, Minkus Nigeria Limited (the Petitioner), is claiming that we were squatters on their land. They subsequently served us with Contravention Notice, and we successfully showed we were authentic residents. Then they said we didn’t have Development Permits. We produced our Permits, including CofO and Governor’s Consent which they duly acknowledged. Thereafter the Petitioner went to court to challenge our title.

“We responded with proof of ownership, forcing them to withdraw the case from court. We thought we were going to have some respite, but then again LASBCA came with the issue of building outside approved design, and fortunately for us, His Excellency, the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, announced a 90-day amnesty window effective May 2, 2024 for people to make good such shortcomings.

“We immediately applied for assessment and processing, but LASBCA refused to attend to us saying that there is a directive that they should not accept drawings and documents from the Maiyegun and Ologolo (families) for processing as the land was in dispute. They used the Chairman, House Committee on Physical Planning, Honourable Sylvester Ogunkelu, and the SA on Urban Development to try to intimidate and harass us.

“In fact, Honourable Ogunkelu, on May 8, 2024 came with an overwhelming force of fully armed Policemen to mark the buildings he claimed belonged to Minkus Nigeria Limited. He was asking the surveyor that came with him if he could get up to 44 plots from the land. In view of this, we promptly obtained an Order of Court on May 30, 2024 directing all parties to maintain status quo pending the determination of the case.

“However, they refused to obey the court order. The 90-day amnesty window is yet to expire, yet LASBCA came again on June 11, 2023 to mark our houses for demolition for the third time, foreclosing the possibility of any of us taking advantage of the amnesty graciously given by His Excellency which incidentally is meant to expire on July 31, 2024.”

Odidika further claimed that neither his building nor those of the other people in Kenneth Odidika Close stands on any water channel or any sort of right of way. In fact, he petitioned the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Oluyinka Olumide, who had a meeting with him and graciously promised to look into matter.

He thinks it is curious that LASBCA is bent on earmarking their buildings for imminent demolition, even before he received any feedback from the Honourable Commissioner, and despite the amnesty directive and a court order ordering parties to maintain status quo.

A number of residents spoken to recall the physical and emotional trauma they have had to go through as a result of these incessant harassment.

One lady told our correspondent that she hardly sleeps well and would jump at the sound of heavy-duty vehicles.

Mr. Tobi Owoeye, the lawyer handling the Minkus case in court, was manhandled during one of LASBCA’s visit on 11th of January, 2024 when Engr. Peter Adeyiga came with over 40 armed policemen, thugs and bulldozer to the estate, threatening to demolish all the buildings.

Owoeye confirmed that they demolished some walls on that day.

Odidika continues to maintain that the alleged contravention is blatantly false as LASBCA has already confirmed that he had a genuine Development Permit dated 4th of April, 2006.

He claimed to have completed and parked into his house in 2006, when there was no LASBCA, and wondered how he could have failed to obtain a certificate from a body that was not in existence, having been created by 2010 law and came into being in 2012.

Odidika however acknowledges that he built a storey building as his servants’ quarters, instead of the bungalow that was approved.

He stated that he was ready to take advantage of His Excellency’s kind gesture and go through necessary processes to regularize that without penalty as provided by the amnesty.

Odidika expressed great appreciation for His Excellency’s intervention and pleads with him to rein in the excesses of some government functionaries who use the instrumentality of their office to deliberately inflict wicked and unlawful pain on innocent citizens.

Of particular reference is the General Manager of LASBCA, Architect Gbolahan Oki, who allegedly ordered him to recant the interview he had previously given on Channels TV on this matter, before he would stop harassing him.

He further alleged that the General Manager threatened that if he failed to recant, he would demolish the house any day he wakes up from the wrong side of the bed and heavens will not fall.

The residents affected by these harassment are insisting that the period of the Amnesty granted by Governor Sanwo-Olu has not expired and see no cause to rush to try to force people out of their houses with the threat of illegal demolition.

They are craving the indulgence of the Governor to direct the relevant Department of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development to accept their documentations and permit them to pay the relevant processing fee.