• Group advises Sanwo-Olu to negotiate with victims
It was a case of taking pleasure in the suffering of others, yesterday, as scavengers took over the site of the buildings demolished, last Friday, by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) at I.K Peters Street, Ajao Estate, Lagos.
While the victims of 13 demolished buildings are yet to recover from their losses, the scavengers are having a field day in full glare of security agencies, in what scientists identified as schadenfreude- satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune.
When The Guardian visited, the scavengers were loading iron rods, roofing sheets, electrical appliances and other items from the buildings into trucks and convening them to the Ikorodu area of Lagos State where they will be melted.
Police officers numbering seven were at the scene to secure the place alongside officers of Lagos State Building Control Agency (LABSCA).
While this was going on, street urchins popularly known as Agberos were at the junction waiting to ask those driving out for their share.
One of the victims and former Editor of The Guardian on Saturday, Mr. Felix Oguejiofor Abugu, had lamented that his household has been driven to the streets, following the demolition of his house valued at over N70 million.
The house where Abugu and his family lived until Friday, April 28, 2023, stood on a plot of land bought 12 years ago from the Baale Adejumolu family of Isolo, and located within the Runview/Mercy Estate owned by FAAN, some five kilometres to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMA), Ikeja, Lagos.
The former Deputy Managing Director of New Telegraph Newspapers, said: “How does one handle this type of situation? This is a property that one put in practically everything one had to be able to develop and live with one’s family and now ‘gbum’! And it is gone, just in one hour of merciless destruction! I just don’t know what to do.”
But explaining reasons for the demolition, FAAN and LASBCA said the buildings lacked approvals and permits in contravention of the state building laws.
Apart from approval issues, the buildings were said to constitute security issues to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, and situated along a petroleum pipeline.
General manager of LASBCA, Gbolahan Owodunni Oki, an architect, said the authorities engaged owners of the buildings since 2016, while four notices were served on them before commencement of the removal.
He blamed such contraventions on attitudinal issues among residents, who have either refused to comply with relevant laws or report contravenor to the appropriate authorities for immediate sanctions.
Oki advised Lagosians to always involve the Agency before commencement of construction as none of the buildings certified by LASBCA had witnessed failures.
Also, the General Manager, Business Development, FAAN, Mr. Hycienth Ugwu, said the buildings were erected on the airport lands acquired by the Federal Government in 1944, 1972 and 1975 for the expansion of the international airport.
He stressed that the continued existence of the buildings in the area constitute a security risk to the airport as terrorists can shoot down an aircraft about to take off from the runway.
Meanwhile, a civil society group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to instruct his Attorney General to enter into immediate negotiations with the hapless owners of the demolished buildings.
The group, in a statement, by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the state should ensure payment of adequate compensations without delay to avoid the imminent floodgate of litigations against the state government by the hapless victims.
According to the group, “Despite the clearly weak and obvious afterthought of a defence being preferred by some Lagos State government officials, regarding the close proximity of the affected properties to a fuel pipeline and the claim that the buildings were erected on FAAN’s property, it will be extremely difficult to convince any right thinking person, that the whole exercise was not politically motivated, coming so closely after the very bitter and acrimonious election.
“The Right of Government To Acquire Any Property For Public Purpose Under the Lands Use Act 2004, the state governor has a right to acquire any land within the confines of the state but only for public purposes. As far the ordinary eye can see, there is no urgent basis for government acquisition of the affected properties and in the unlikely event such a basis exists, adequate notice notices had obviously not been given as can clearly be seen from the viral video clip wherein, the distraught woman painfully lamented her inability to retrieve any of her properties, including vital documents.”
