Nigeria: Lagos Gives Quit Notice to Obalende Squatters, Illegal Motor Parks

12 February 2024

Lagos State government has given four days notice to squatters and illegal motor park operators at Obalende to vacate the area or face its wrath."The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, and his transportation counterpart, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, gave the ultimatum yesterday.

The duo spoke after inspecting Apongbon underbridge, Obalende, Ijora underbridge and Surulere, opposite National Stadium.

Speaking with newsmen after the inspection, the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, said all shanties and their dwellers, traders, squatters, cattle rearers and abandoned vehicles under Obalende bridge must vacate the area by Thursday afternoon as enforcement would commence in the early hours of Friday morning.

He added that all the commercial vehicle operators who have turned the main roads in Obalende into parking lots should relocate to the various parks provided for them, saying government had had enough of the defacement of the aesthetics of Obalende by the operators.

Wahab, who was flanked by his counterparts in the state executive council, said there was no going back on the matching order to the squatters and motorists in Obalende to vacate the area.

"I will like to state that I am happy with the level of compliance at Ijora, Apongbon and Ebute Ero under bridge where the cleanup commenced two weeks ago.'

The government is set to sustain the clean and safe environment and in a matter of months, the space will be taken over by LASPARK," he stated.

The Commissioner said Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency, LASPARK, would move in after the squatters had been removed, to commence work on the beautification and landscaping of Obalende under bridge, Apongbon under bridge, and Ebute Ero under bridge, stressing that the clean up would spread to other bridges across the state.

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