News
Lagos demolition: Top journalist who lost N70million home leads protest to NASS
Felix Oguejiofor Abugu, former Editor of The Guardian on Saturday, whose N70million Lagos home was demolished recently by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAA), is leading a group of other victims to the National Assembly to protest the inhuman act.
The group under the aegis of Association of Victims of Runview/Mercy Estate Lagos Demolitions, petitioned NASS over the incident, which occurred on Friday, April 28, 2023, when bulldozers sent by agents of FAAN, brought down their homes, with many of them not allowed to pick out even a broom.
In protesting “the wrongful destruction of our houses by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and its agents,” the victims, in a petition signed by Abugu and countersigned by five others of the 13 victims of the controversial exercise, asking the members of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation to intervene, the group insisted the action was wrongly done by FAAN (which owns Runview/Mercy Estate).
They described the treatment as “unfair, even lacking in common sense,” especially with the fact that the same FAAN, which, ab initio, gave them approval to build on their plots would later turn around, after the empty lands had been developed, to claim that “we built on unauthorised area.”
Outside Abugu, the group’s spokesman, others who signed the document, dated May 4, 2023, included Olufemi George Adewunmi, Francis Okechukwu Eke, Mr. George and Mrs. Victoria Egwakhe and two others, the petition recalled that “on Friday, April 28, 2023, bulldozers hired by FAAN from Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) rolled into our Estate and demolished 13 buildings.”
The statement, said: “Out of this number, we protest that six of the buildings belonging to our members were wrongfully demolished,” the petitioners asserted, adding that “had FAAN or any of its agents given us audience prior to the demolitions, they would have discovered that there was no cogent reason for their action (because) we have evidence to prove that the plots on which we built were legitimately acquired under an arrangement put in place by FAAN itself.
“In 2015/2016, long before most of us started developing our property, FAAN undertook an enumeration of all the plots of land in what was originally Richfield Estate (named after a school called Richfield Schools, the first development on that piece of real estate), later renamed Runview/Mercy State by the Airports Authority.
“Termed ‘Regularization’, the idea of the enumeration was to streamline all titles to plots of land in the Estate at the payment of N2m (two million naira only) per plot to the Landlords Association acting in behalf of FAAN.
“Sir, there is available evidence that more than half of the six landlords whose houses were destroyed had paid more than half of the 2m ‘Regularisation’ fee (some N1m, some N1.2m, some 1.5m, among others) demanded by FAAN, long before they even started building their houses.
“What that means is that FAAN had way back recognised us as bonafide owners of property in the Runview/Mercy Estate. The question is, if our members had complied with the Airports Authority’s demands ab initio, why did FAAN then turn around to demolish our houses without any cogent reasons?
“As we read in the press, LASBCA, which merely deployed its equipment and personnel to carry out the demolitions for FAAN, said our buildings were destroyed because they were built on an oil pipeline. However, to the best of our knowledge, Sir, none of our members built their house on any oil pipeline as no such a thing exists in our section of the Estate.
“As a matter of fact, FAAN itself, aided by the Landlords’ Association, had in April last year carried out an excavation on one of members’ property to find out if there was any pipeline running underground through that stretch of land covering six buildings on IK Peter’s Close, but did not find any. Indeed, it is on record that FAAN/Landlords Association offered to pay for the cost of that excavation but one of our members eventually picked the bill.
“So, how could our buildings have been demolished on the grounds that they were built on a non-existent oil pipeline? Is this a case of giving a dog a bad name in order to kill it? Obviously!”
The group, which presented a copy of the petition to the Chairman of the House Committee on Aviation, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, who led members of his Committee on a fact-finding tour of the demolition site over the weekend, consequently appealed that in the light of the ‘obvious miscarriage of justice’ in the “wrongful demolition of our members’ houses, we plead with you, Sir, and members of your committee to use your good offices to ameliorate the physical and psychological trauma our families who were roughly thrown out on the streets as a result of the demolitions, have suffered.”
“We insist that we did not do any wrong in all the transactions we have had with FAAN at Runview/Mercy Estate and should, therefore, not be treated with such indignities as have been meted out to us by the Airports Authority.
“Please, save us from this inhuman treatment by an agency of government that ought really to treat citizens with some level of empathy, respect and dignity,” the group pleaded.
Hon. Nnaji’s team was later received at the FAAN head office in Lagos, where the Airports Authority’s officials and representatives of the Runview/Mercy Estate’s Landlords Association strove to justify the demolitions.
In his remarks, a former Chairman of the Landlords’ Association (name withheld) in whose tenure the plots on which six of the demolished houses were built were enumerated and receipts given for payments made, thanked FAAN for demolishing the houses, claiming that the victims defied the Association’s order not to build on the property.
According to findings, it was incidentally the same former Chairman who negotiated, at a commission, the purchase of the plot on which one of the victims built his now demolished house.
Clement Ikolo, traditional ruler of Ewu Kingdom, on Friday, got into the safe hands of Ede Dafinone, Senator representing Delta North at the National Assembly, ending a three-week ordeal in the custody of the Nigerian Army, who named him as one of those linked the brutal murder of four officers and 13 soldiers in Okuama community, Ughelli South Local Government of Delta State, on March 14, 2024.
But, there is a caveat – nobody is full exonerated yet over the incident, Defence Headquarters, said on Friday, adding that his release was because nothing had been connected to him yet, coupled with the fact that some prominent people from his kingdom have come out to speak to his good character.
The traditional ruler was earlier declared wanted by the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) alongside seven others on March 28, a day after he turned himself in, for their alleged involvement in the killing of the soldiers in Okuama community of Ughelli South LGA of the State while on peace mission.
Onyema Nwachukwu, a Major General and spokesman of the DHQ, who handed the monarch over to the Senator, explained that the Army took the decision after painstakingly reviewing every available information on the incident, and came to the preliminary observation, that while the culpability had not conclusively established anything against him, there was insufficient evidence to exonerate anyone at this stage.
He however added that due to the intervention of eminent personalities, and the fact that the monarch voluntarily turned himself in, he has released to Dafinone on the condition that he would always assist in the ongoing investigations.
Others declared wanted, included Prof. Ekpekpo Arthur, Andaowei Dennis Bakriri, Akevwru Daniel Omotegbo (Aka Amagben), Akata Malawa David, Sinclear Oliki; a traditional ruler, Clement Ikolo Oghenerukeywe; Reuben Baru, and Igoli Ebi.
Before surrendering himself to the police, who eventually handed him over to the military, the monarch, had in a public statement, claiming innocence of complicity in the murder of the 17 military men: “I am very surprised that my name as the monarch of the kingdom will appear in the list of wanted persons.
“I have no hand in the killings, I have no hand in encouraging anybody to kill anybody. It is against my philosophy as a human being and my faith as a Catholic. It is a serious crime against humanity. They need to look at the appropriate places and do thorough investigation to know all those who committed this, bring them to book and let justice prevail.
“I am not a party to this. And like I have said earlier, the state government is aware of the turbulence I have been going through. And as I speak, an arrangement was made by the government to invite the opponents recently just before these happenings.
“(The arrangement was) To invite those who are fighting me in the kingdom to reconcile the differences and allow me to go into the kingdom and start to rule as the monarch of the place. I have not been able to set up anything. Not even my traditional council.
“I have done nothing in the kingdom. So I barely know anything right now. I have no information, I know nothing. I’m only just in the process of setting up a structure to enable me rule in the kingdom.”
There is no valid order stripping Abdullahi Ganduje of his position of National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), known to the party and therefore, he will continue his duties as prescribed, the National Working Committee (NWC), has insisted, debunking that he is no longer a member of the party by the orders of the courts.
Felix Morka, spokesman of the party, who made this declaration on Wednesday, on Arise Television, maintained that neither Ganduje himself nor the party, was served with the orders, said to have been obtained against the party boss by his ward in Kano State, where he served as a two-term governor between 2015 and 2023.
Insisting that Ganduje’s position remained intact, explained that the ruling party would disregard the said court order affirming Ganduje’s suspension as APC national chairman and only honour the recent Kano Federal High Court ruling ordering a stay of the order.
The declaration is coming on a day Justice AM Liman of the Federal High Court, Abuja overturned the said suspension of Ganduje by his ward executives in Dawakin Tofa Local Government area of Kano State.
The party boss, had obtained the ruling through another ex-parte motion in which he sought to enforce his fundamental right to a fair hearing, in a suit, in which he also joined the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Department of State Services (DSS ), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and nine other individuals.
Morka told his hosts: “The order issued by the first court was very disturbing, for some reasons. First, the plaintiffs who purportedly filed that action are not recognised members of our party and therefore shouldn’t have the locus standi to invoke the authority of the court to make any such order.
“Secondly, every lawyer in this country is aware that from the Supreme Court up to the NJC, there is this cautiousness that judges don’t make orders that are far-reaching in effect on an ex parte motion or application”
Habeeb Okikiola, maverick Nigerian popstar, popularly known as Portable, has alerted Nigerians that he might be the next in the radar of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) currently hunting down Nigerian celebrities involved in the abuse of the Naira, the nation’s local currency.
Last Friday, a Federal High Court sent Idris Okuneye, Nigeria’s popular crossdresser, also known as Bobrisky, for pleading guilty to a four-count charge over the offence, after which it began the trial of Pascal Okechukwu, popularly known as Cubana Chief Priest, on Tuesday after his arrest for the same offence, on Monday.
Citing an alleged campaign by self-acclaimed social media activist, VeryDarkMan to push the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to come after him, the Zazu crooner who is currently abroad, fearing that the anti-graft agency could pick him up upon his return, pleaded that he should be spared.
Begging the commission’s operatives to forgive him should they have any evidence of his abusing the currency, the singer, told his fans during an Instagram live session: “I am scared. The EFCC is planning to arrest me when I return to Nigeria because VeryDarkMan name-dropped me.
“VeryDarkMan abi VeryDarkBrain, you talk too much. Leave talk for people who have something reasonable to say. Are you a law enforcement officer? Your opinions on public affairs are for people in the law enforcement agencies. When you were arrested it was Nigerians who begged for your freedom. When you came out, you were lean; all your muscles disappeared. And now you’re bragging. Leave talk for people who are sensible. You talk about women, politics, everything. What do you do for a living? Talk talk.”
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