By Henry Ojelu

Some landlords in the Obalende area of Lagos State have cried out over the illegal demolition of their houses by the Lagos State Government.

The Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA had last week demolished over 15 buildings in the area over an alleged non-compliance with the Lagos State building plan.

The agency said the demolition in the area is to restore sanity to Obalende and also avert collapse that may lead to possible loss of lives and properties.

But reacting to the development, Chairman of the Obalende Landlords Association, Mr. Olaitan Olokowo said the demolition was against a court judgment that had restrained the state government from encroaching on their property.

Olokowo noted the Obalende area was ceded to most landlords in the area under a lease arrangement ranging from 60 to 100 years.

He stated that upon the expiration of the lease sometime in 1997, some of the landlords applied for renewal, but the state government refused to accede to their request.

Olokowo further stated that the landlords sued the state government and got an injunction restraining it from encroaching on the landlord and a further order compelling it to renew its lease.

According to him, since the court judgments, the statement has refused to obey the orders but instead perfected its move to evict them from their property last week.

“We want justice. We want the state government to obey the orders of the court which directed that it should renew our lease. This demolition is wrong and we are appealing to the state government to stop this illegality.

“In August, they came to obalende and pasted a notice that all landlords most come to Alausa within 48 hours with their documents failure which their properties will be demolished.

We thought it was a joke, four days after, the Lagos State Building Control Agency; the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development came with armed Mopol and passed another Seven days notice.

“We called on our lawyer, who went to meet them without documents and after going there they made a publication inviting all of us. On getting to Ikeja, we saw the banners reflecting all that they wanted to do in Obalende. They told us that Obalende is a slum but we all rejected the statement and told them that Obalende is not a slum and they apologize.

” They now told us that they want to remodel Obalende and that they are not sending us away or grabbing our land, but they want to build sky scrapper, after which they will allot to us according to the status of each one. They told us that there is nothing we can do and that they will do what they intend to do.

“That was our last meeting before suddenly they came last week and started pulling down buildings without any agreement or plan for compensation. We want justice and we believe that state government will not watch and allow this kind of injustice to prevail.”