TONGUES have continued to wag since the Lagos State government embarked upon massive demolition of shanties and other illegal structures that deface all nooks and crannies of the city.

It is commonplace to see buildings spring up without planning approvals from the relevant government agencies.

Town planning authorities in the various local governments and development areas often serve "stop work notices" on the developers but these orders are either ignored or the planning officials settled. This development accounts for the plethora of unapproved buildings that dot the Lagos landscape.

Many Lagosians believe that the planless developments in the "centre of excellence" could have been avoided if the planning authorities had lived up to their duties. But the planners are heaping the blame on successive governments in the state which paid mere lip service to town planning issues.

Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Mr. Moses Ogunleye who spoke for the settlement experts alleged that previous governors who ruled the State, failed to heed the advice of town planners to sanitise the development process in the State.

"The Nigerian Institute of Town Planning (NITP) had told Lagos State Government on several occasions to embark on rigorous enlightenment and enforcement of various town planning regulations so that people will not say they don't know about the illegality they are perpetrating. Demolitions would have been less now if the government had listened to us," he said.

Mr. Ogunleye however lauded the Government for taking the bull by the horn to restore the master plan.

"What the government is doing now should be commended for having the political will to do it. Lagos has been a major player in the global environment and African setting. Therefore, for Lagos to live up to expectation, we need to check the spate of un-cycling and ugly developments in the state. To check this, we need to implement the plans that will designate commercial activities.

We need to go back to the old plan that expired in the year 2000. We need to look at the recommendations of the expired plan because Lagos has a major problem of acute shortage of land. Let's identify more lands for the purpose of constructing more markets for the people. People should not convert any space around them to trading spots or street markets.

We have people trading on the right of way because we did not plan our cities. Oshodi is an example of trading on the right of way.

Continuing, Mr. Ogunleye declared: " There should be orderliness in Lagos. There will be chaos in any city where people just put up buildings or structures by their own decisions without adherence to planning rules and regulations of the state. If illegal structures are allowed, such a city will not be conducive for development.

What the State government is doing is to say there should be orderliness for once in the State. Erecting buildings or structures on drainage channels, right of ways and road setbacks is illegal because the erection of such structures contravenes urban and regional planning laws of any state. We have come to believe that illegal structures is the right thing because we have been living with it for a long time now. This trend should stop," he said.

Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Francisco Bolaji Abosede stated that most of the current demolitions have not been carried out by his ministry, but noted that before any demolition is carried out by the Ministry,"we usually give those concerned adequate notice".

According to the commissioner who incidentally is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, the Ministry will normally look at the location plan to ensure that developers in that area build according to what is contained in the master plan. He explained that the Ministry is currently doing that at Oshodi where four commissioners met with landlords recently. Those who have legitimate papers, he said would be adequately compensated.

Mr. Abosede stated that in a bid to guarantee sustainable use of land in the State, the Physical Planning Ministry has requested all persons engaged or who have commissioned the construction of houses in the State to come and present the development/building permits issued to them in respect of the property for verification purposes.

Advising developers to ensure compliance with the provisions of their development permit, the Commissioner warned that anybody who had been served notices in line with the provisions of the law but fails or neglects to carry out the demands within the specified time limit, will have such buildings demolished and cost of removal recovered from the owner or developer.