By Etop Ekanem

On Monday, officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning demolished an event centre/green house belonging to a one-time governorship aspirant in Ekiti State and businessman, Kayode Otitoju.

The event centre, located at the setback by Cable Point Estate, in Lekki Phase 1, had been subject of disagreement between Murhi International Nigeria Limited, with its owner, Kunle Gbadeyanka, claiming that since his company owns the land just after the setback, automatically, the setback belongs to his company.

However, speaking to Sunday Vanguard in his Lekki Phase 1 office, Otitoju said nothing could be farther from the truth. Showing documents, he said the setback was  leased to his company, Jukot Nigeria Limited, by the New Town Development Authority, NTDA, in 2001, adding that initial lease was for 15 years which lapsed this year and he has since applied for another 30-year lease.

He said: “It is strange these guys are claiming that they own the land. The New Town Development Authority, NTDA, leased the land to my company via a letter with reference number NTD/PPD/002/Vol.II/88 dated February 16, 2000. While the lease was granted for 15 years, I was, however, told that there should not be physical structure on the land.

Kayode Otitoju

“To demonstrate that the land belongs to the government, a canal was built along that setback some few years ago. Besides, the government had decreed that no permanent structure must be erected on the setback as government might have a need for the land any time. That was why the event centre and green house was constructed with iron rods and corrugated aluminium sheets which could be pulled down any time”.

Meanwhile, officials of the Building Control Agency, Ministry of Physical Planning as well as the NTDA issued stop work order on the building which was almost completed. The irony of it all was that the three government agencies gave different reasons for the stop work order. While the NTDA, which allegedly leased the land to Otitoju’s company in the first place, said it was Murhi International Nigeria Limited’s land, the Department of Physical Planning said it was a green zone.

After series of unfruitful meetings between Otitoju and Murhi International on one hand as well as officials of the Physical Planning Ministry on the other,  Otitoju decided to take a legal step. He said: “I decided to go to court after the minutes of the meeting did not reflect the resolutions There was no time I agreed that the structure be demolished but that was what they officials of the Physical Planning Ministry wrote in their report. What shocked me was that they discountenanced all the documents, which they themselves asked for, proving that the setback in question was actually leased to by  government to me. Rather, they said I agreed that the structure be demolished. How could I have done that.”

Otitoju approached the courts but not before some prominent citizens had  intervened in the matter, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was said to have got in touch with Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on the issue. It was when the suit was still pending, and first hearing fixed for May 19, that the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning came down on the structure on Monday, May 9, and demolished it.

Otitoju said his grouse was not the demolition but the fact that a case on this matter had already been filed in a competent court and all the parties involved, including the body that came for demolition, had already been served papers. According to him, he did not expect such to happen under a democratic government, not to talk of a state under the All Progressives Congress, APC, to which Otitoju, ironically is a member.

He has, however, filed another suit which seeks to cause the respondents to restore the structure to pre-demolition state. The motion, with Suit Number LD2625LMW/16, seeks an order of “mandatory injunction compelling the defendant to re-erect and/or rebuild the claimant/applicant green house/events centre hitherto standing on the claimant’s portion/parcel of land situate, lying and being at Plot 2 and 2A of the green area air-marked for horticultural purposes in Lekki Peninsula Scheme 1 demolished by the defendants on 9th May, 2016 during the pendency of the claimant’s suit and motion for injunction.”