Lawmakers summon Sanwo-Olu’s officials, landowners over Jakande Estate demolition threat

Lawmakers have summoned Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s officials and some landowners over allegations of a planned demolition of houses in Jakande Estate, Eti-Osa.

News Agency of Nigeria • November 2, 2022

The Lagos House of Assembly has summoned Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s officials and some landowners over allegations of a planned demolition of houses in Jakande Estate, Eti-Osa.

Specifically, the lawmakers summoned the commissioner for housing, Moruf Akinderu-Fatai and the managing director of the Lagos Building Investments Company (LBIC), Oluwatobi Lawal, on Tuesday, sequel to a matter raised under ‘Matters of Urgent Public Importance” by Noheem Adams, deputy majority leader.

According to him, some Jakande Estate residents aged 70 to 80 stormed his home in the early hours of Tuesday, pleading that the Sanwo-Olu government should not demolish their houses.

“It will be recalled that (the) majority of the residents lived in Maroko before their houses were demolished in the 1990s, and they were relocated to the Jakande Estate in Eti-Osa local government area of Lagos state,” stated the legislator.

Mr Adams said the residents had lived peacefully until the alleged demolition threats. He revealed that the residents had written a petition to the parliament while their grievance was already being addressed by the House Committee on Public Petitions, chaired by Victor Akande.

“On September 23, some members of the house led by Akande visited the Jakande Estate with some officials from the LBIC, who had promised that they would not demolish buildings in the area,” he explained. “However, on October 12, officials of the LBIC went to the estate to mark houses for demolition.”

Rotimi Olowo, another lawmaker, described the petitioners’ situation as pathetic and urged the Lagos government and the estate residents to seek an amicable resolution to the crisis.

Adewale Temitope, a legislator in the Lagos parliament, supported Mr Olowo.

Speaker of the parliament, Mudashiru Obasa, before approving the commissioner and LBIC boss’ invitation noted that there was a need to understand the government’s position on the issue.

The speaker also agreed that there should be collaboration and understanding between the property owners and the Lagos government.

(NAN)

We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.