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Some Lagos residents within the Eti-Osa Native Authorities Space (LGA) who had been issued demolition discover over the deliberate development of the Lagos-Calabar coastal freeway have pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to intervene and cease the “illegal and unwarranted” train.
In a letter to the president signed on their behalf by Jiti Ogunye, a public curiosity lawyer, the property homeowners accused the Minister of Works, David Umahi, of abuse of energy and “illegal train of ministerial discretion.”
The property homeowners pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to intervene and direct the minister to desert the brand new alignment for the freeway at Lafiaji, Eti Osa LGA and revert to the unique long-established proper of means.
The freeway has generated quite a lot of controversy. Additionally affected is Landmark, a non-public enterprise that sits alongside the Atlantic Ocean beachfront in Lagos’ prosperous Victoria Island space.
Open letter
The open letter is titled, ‘Distortion within the development of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal freeway by arbitrary deviation from the long-established proper of means by the Minister of Works and the Federal Controller of Works, and the threatened illegal demolition of property of homeowners and residents at Lafiaji neighborhood, Eti-Osa Native Authorities Space, Lagos State – plea for presidential intervention.’
Mr Ogunye famous that performing on the behest of the federal ministry of works, the Lagos State Authorities had marked some properties within the Lafiaji neighborhood for removing and demolition.
“Our purchasers embrace Professor Oluropo Sekoni, Dr. Kola Akinleye, Mr. Bonojo Olalekan and Mr. Festus Ogwu and plenty of others who’re well-respected, law-abiding senior residents on this nation.
“Our purchasers are constrained to write down you this open letter as a determined step to safe aid and save their houses and property from an impending illegal and unwarranted demolition,” the lawyer mentioned within the open letter.
How the lands had been bought
Within the acquisition of their plots of land and improvement of their respective houses and properties, Mr Ogunye famous that his purchasers obtained requisite consents of the state authorities “to their deeds of assignments, had their respective survey plans hewed from the accepted Ojomu Household Structure Plan, and obtained all the required constructing approvals and improvement permits from the related companies of the Lagos State Authorities.
“Our purchasers, numbering over eighty (80) individuals, individually bought and got here into possession of their respective landed property at numerous occasions a few years in the past. All of them have a typical predecessor in title within the Ojomu Chieftaincy Household of Ajiran-Land in Lagos State.
“The title of their predecessor in title, earlier than it was handed onto our purchasers, was confirmed by a Judgment of the Excessive Court docket of Justice of Western Nigeria, delivered on the twelfth day of December 1960 in Swimsuit No. I/302/55 (Oba Onibeju & Ors. Vs Salumonu Oyebola & Ors.), a judgment that was affirmed by the Supreme Court docket of Nigeria on the twenty fifth day of January 1965 in Swimsuit No. FSC/268/1963.
“After the emergence of the Lands Use Act, 1978, the mentioned title was additional affirmed by a Judgment of the Excessive Court docket of Lagos State in Swimsuit No. ID/1883/89 (Alhaji Fatai Ajetumobi & Ors vs. Lawyer-Common of Lagos State, which was delivered on 18th day of October 1991, and which declared that the Ojomu Chieftaincy Household was the holder of the customary proper of occupancy over the mentioned land. Finally, the Lagos State Authorities, by an Official Gazette No. 15. Vol. 37, 2004, dated seventh day of April 2004, adopted the mentioned judgment, and excised from obligatory international acquisition your complete Lafiaji Village, an excision of which our purchasers’ respective landed property kinds a component, down the road.”
Demolition
Mr Ogunye claimed that time beyond regulation, some landowners constructed on the mentioned proper of means and “constructed large estates crisscrossing similar within the phantasm that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Freeway would by no means be constructed, with none legitimate authorized title to the land on which they constructed; or with authorities officials-assisted fabricated certificates of occupancy with embossed survey-plans (the world coordinates of which actually are that of lands adjoining and proximate to the Proper of Method, however that are handed off as that of a land located inside or protecting the Proper of Method, for the aim of acquiring certificates of occupancy).
“These individuals additionally both didn’t receive legitimate constructing approvals and improvement permits from the related companies of the Lagos State Authorities or had been assisted by corrupt officers of presidency to acquire doctored paperwork.”
Accusation
The residents accused the minister of deviating from the unique proper of means “by particularly directing surveyors of the Federal Authorities of Nigeria (Ministry of Works) on the challenge to determine a contemporary proper of means, create a brand new alignment and alter the highway course into the world the place their plots of lands and homes had been located, an space which was not coated by the long-established proper of means.
“From out there data, the brand new alignment being dictated by the Minister of Works and Federal Controller of Works has not been assimilated by the Workplace of the Surveyor-Common of Lagos State and the Lands Bureau, however curiously, the Workplace of Growth Issues, Lagos State Ministry of Bodily Planning and City Growth has served our purchasers ‘Elimination Discover on Bodily Growth Throughout the Proper of Method (RoW) of the Proposed Lagos-Calabar Coastal Freeway Mission in Lagos State, dated tenth of Could 2024, demanding that inside seven (7) days of being served the notices, our purchasers ought to take away their buildings from the brand new, arbitrarily established Proper of Method, and submit any paperwork of their landed property to the Everlasting Secretary, Lands Bureau of Lagos State, Alausa, Lagos State for compensation functions,” Mr Ogunye mentioned.
One of many estates constructed on the correct of means contains Ocean Bay, the residents claimed.
Mr Ogunye mentioned that his purchasers had been in whole help of the development of the freeway however they may not perceive why their “authorized rights and pursuits have to be sacrificed to please violators of the long-established Proper of Method, whose illegally constructed property (homes) might be demolished and eliminated with none compensation in any way, and with justification.
“Why are our purchasers – law-abiding residents – being rewarded with oppression, whereas violators, who knowingly and arrogantly constructed on the long-established Proper of Method are being handled with reverence?” Mr Ogunye requested.
Response
Contacted for a response on Sunday at totally different occasions, Mr Umahi’s recognized cellphone line was busy. A textual content message was additionally despatched to the identical cellphone line.
However as of the time of submitting this report, the minister had but to reply.
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