On their Way To the Court
By Annette Oghenerhaboke
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Shop owners in Mosafejo Market, Oshodi, threaten court action against the Lagos State Government over the demolition of the market
Traders at the Mosafejo market, Oshodi, Onigbongbo Local Government Area of Lagos state are planning to drag the Lagos State Government to court over the demolition of their shops. They have instructed their lawyers to sue the government. Already, their lawyers have written a formal protest letter to the state government and the council demanding an explanation for the demolition when there was an agreement between the traders and the local government. The traders who spoke to Newswatch said they were given approval to reconstruct the market by the local government.
The traders' decision to head for court, if eventually carried out, would be supported by the Onigbongbo Local Government Council of Lagos State. This is because the local government which gave the traders permission to erect the shops, was not carried along by the state government before the market was demolished February 4. The local government is in charge of administration and control of the market.
Idowu Obasa, executive secretary, Onigbongbo Local Council Development Area, expressed surprise at the action of the Lagos State Government. According to him, "The traders could not believe that we at the local government did not know anything about the demolition because they are our tenants. "We were not taken into confidence before the demolition was carried out. Infact we lost some of our properties to the demolition as we had a small hospital in the market," Obasa said.
He argued that the state government by should have raised a qurery "if the traders or the council has committed any offence, before disgracing the local government, noting that the traders would be justified if eventually they carry out their threat to sue the state government. "I received series of letters from their lawyers saying that we gave them a contract and at the same time demolished their stalls without given them any notice which gave hoodlums the opportunity to loot their wares".
Ben Akunya, vice chairman, Association of Interior Decorators in the market, told Newswatch that the demolition took them by surprise because they were not given advance notice. Owners of shops 107 to 117 in the market were given a seven-day quit notice by the state government and not the entire market. He said in order to see if the demolition exercise on the affected shops could be stopped, "we opened negotiation with government officials for a peaceful resolution of the problem." But while a meeting was going on at the council secretariat, task force men forcefully ejected our people from their shops and started the demolition. "This is a high level of deceit from the government," he said.
Akunya said more than N20 million has so far been spent by the traders in the decking of the market as a result of a previous fire incident. Yemi Janehin, chairman, Mosafejo market, told Newswatch that the decision to turn the stalls into a storey building was with the approval of the council and that when the officials of Physical Planning requested for the documents, it was shown to them. He lamented that ever since the market was demolished, nobody has been able to provide an explanation for the demolition and that "this is a market comprising more than 10,000 traders."
But Adetokunbo Akinosho Thomas, public relations officer, ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, defended the action of the ministry. She told Newswatch that the demolition was to enable the state government achieve its goal of turning Lagos into a mega city, adding that it was part of the road expansion currently going on in Lagos. Citing section 91 and 92 of the Urban and Regional Planning and Development law, 2005, Thomas noted that the traders went contrary to the law. For instance, section 91 of the law stipulates "that no person or group of persons in the state shall without prior grant of development permit by the ministry erect structures on any land, carry out any work or development whatsoever in or under or over any land, change the approval use of any land or structure, sub-divide any land or partition for the physical purpose of obtaining the certificate of occupancy, increase the height or density of the building."
Section 92 states the punishment for the offence saying. This includes various penalties that include fines, imprisonment and demolition of any contravening structure. "Government shall henceforth pursue with vigour the prosecution of any developer/owner, individual or corporate body that aid and abet or conspire with anyone to perpetrate the breach of the law," it said.
On the issue of notification, Thomas explained that no demolition takes place without notice and that if any demolition was carried out without due notice, the officials involved in the demolition would be punished accordingly.
Newswatch learnt that the directive from the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development initially was that the market was too close to the road and should be shifted backward. The movement should be about 30 to 50 meters away from the road. Consequently, on February 4, traders were issued a seven-day notice that certain portion of the market be demolished. But surprisingly, on March 13, the market built since 1983 during Governor Lateef Jakande's era was demolished.
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