A Lagos homeowner has cried out to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu over the erection of a telecommunication base station and an illegal structure close to a major drainage without appropriate setbacks in line with the Lagos State Urban and Regional Town Planning Law.
The affected estate, formerly known as Marwa Gardens, but rechristened MKO Abiola Gardens, Alausa, Ikeja, is close to Government House. It is a serene neighbourhood, but the serenity residents of the estate have enjoyed for over two decades, according to some concerned inhabitants, is about to be disrupted, if the unregulated plans by officials of the estate’s management to erect an illegal structure on a small piece of land that has been used over the years as meeting venue, among others, is not curbed.
Speaking on the development, Alhaji Olusoga Elias Olowolekomoh, the Oba-elect of Odo-Nla Kingdom, Ikorodu, Lagos, a pioneer home owner in MKO Abiola Gardens since 1997, was apprehensive about the illegal structure, especially as it is right by his building entrance gate.
“I am one of the first set of resident landlords domiciled in MKO Gardens, Alausa, Ikeja since 1997. Though based in England, United Kingdom, I do visit friends and relatives back home at periodic intervals as deemed necessary. I am a native of Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria,” the businessman and philanthropist said.
“On a small portion of land inside MKO Gardens that used to be known to the entire estate and outsiders as ‘wood office’ next to my property, which later turned to out to become centre of divergent businesses was converted to wooden shanties and eventually a make-shift small block used often as meetings venue by the estate management officials after the original landlords; Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) left the estate premises for quite some time now.
“As a matter of fact, the estate meeting centre later caved with the building structures partially collapsed to the ground. Afterwards, information and intelligence received from credible sources indicated that series of geological tests were commissioned and conducted to ascertain the integrity of the soil’s solidity and conditions. The verdict was a certified declaration that no tangible and enduring structure or property can be erected at the site for health and safety reasons, being a left over portion of landscape segregated as access point area. It is also a point for identifying and monitoring underground sewage waste channels and pipelines for the entire estate with connection points to major sewage canal extensions outside the community as far as main drainage connected to Alausa districts and other adjoining communities beyond the axis.”
Olowolekomoh’s main concern is the current estate management’s penchant for”indiscriminate erection of dangerous structures and dumping of recyclable waste products and toxic materials on the site in flagrant abuse and violations of communal environmental sanitation laws and regulations by state and non-state actors for personal gratification benefits and purposes.”
He disclosed that the estate’s new executive members who visited the site did nothing; rather they diverted discussions to other irrelevant issues despite the severity of the matter at stake. Olowolekomoh also said a lady, who is equally one of the management staff, did not respond to several attempts to reach her on the phone concerning the matter.
“Currently, the unrelenting abuse extends to direct trespassing and encroachment against my property that is situated next door with a concrete fence and floral demarcations to the open landscape. My building’s frontage and adjacent wall fence have become so blighted and damaged with varied physical defacement that has cost me significant amount to restore and repair at separate intervals.
“Aside from the above personal burdens, the unregulated use of this landscape poses great existential dangers and risks to the overall communal environmental sanitation and which designates the ground as a green space for ecosystem balancing and aesthetics in perfect alignments with the Lagos State Ministry of Urban and Town Planning regulations.”
To his surprise, however, while he was pushing to ensure that the telecommunication company’s high mast on the land was dismantled and removed, “it got to my notice that the same small portion of land has been sold to someone who has now demolished the old cracked meetings centre, with an intent to build residential/commercial property on the land atop the underground sewage units despite expert’s warnings and advice to this effect.
“The very high telecom mast and electronic billboard on the land positioned next to my property’s wall to the extent that parts of the support braces are laying on my concrete flower pots while posterior wall fence is encroached from the side adjacent to my gate entrance.
“My urgent appeal to the Ministry of Urban and Town Planning, LSPDC and Lagos State government, therefore, is to take immediate action to secure the ground in reference with a view to restore and conserve it as an ultra communal green space it was designated for against any prohibited residential or commercial developments hazardous to environmental safety.
“As a matter of fact, verified investigation reports by expert consultants indicated that installation of high telecom mast on the site failed the relevant Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports while ongoing developments on the land also constitute infringements on the integrity of surrounding properties within its immediate vicinity.
“What may have given the estate authorities the temerity to attempt to block the entrance of his second gate may be because they thought there was no government approval for it.
“What they don’t know is that as far back as November 2007, I already got the approval from the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation. I paid the required fee and I am good. Now, they think they can encroach into my property, block my entrance with an illegal structure and destroy my flower pots.A viable regeneration plan can optimize a better use of the space as a recreation ground with carefully designed landscape beautification and facilities that provides strategic added aesthetic communal value to the estate in particular while also being of immense benefits to the public at large,”he said.
Olowolekomoh, who commended the estate management authority in the areas of security and organisation, however, maintained that in the event of no positive proactive action by the authority to secure the ground against the nuisance and gross abuse taking place at the site, he as a concerned homeowner may be left with no other alternative “than to pursue legal actions to safeguard and protect the integrity of his property. This, he said, is to secure the site against threats of hazardous urban property developers and opportunists desperate to sabotage and compromise the safety of the estate’s residents including members of the general public against looming environmental disasters due to their compromised perversions bordering on personal selfish aggrandizement at the expense of all and sundry.
“The estate management should be commended on the way and manner it has secured residents. The security organisation is top notch and the environment very neat, befitting the status of the estate. The only black spot is the proposed erection of that illegal structure which I am contesting,” he submitted.
