The residents accused the Minister of Works of altering the long-established right of way in order to preserve the properties of violators
Some Lagos residents in the Eti-Osa Local Government Area (LGA) who were issued demolition notice over the planned construction of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway have pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to intervene and stop the "unlawful and unwarranted" exercise.
In a letter to the president signed on their behalf by Jiti Ogunye, a public interest lawyer, the property owners accused the Minister of Works, David Umahi, of abuse of power and "unlawful exercise of ministerial discretion."
The property owners pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to intervene and direct the minister to abandon the new alignment for the highway at Lafiaji, Eti Osa LGA and revert to the original long-established right of way.
The highway has generated a lot of controversy. Also affected is Landmark, a private business that sits along the Atlantic Ocean beachfront in Lagos' affluent Victoria Island area.
Open letter
The open letter is titled, 'Distortion in the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway by arbitrary deviation from the long-established right of way by the Minister of Works and the Federal Controller of Works, and the threatened unlawful demolition of property of owners and residents at Lafiaji community, Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos State - plea for presidential intervention.'
Mr Ogunye noted that acting at the behest of the federal ministry of works, the Lagos State Government had marked some properties in the Lafiaji community for removal and demolition.
"Our clients include Professor Oluropo Sekoni, Dr. Kola Akinleye, Mr. Bonojo Olalekan and Mr. Festus Ogwu and many others who are well-respected, law-abiding senior citizens in this country.
"Our clients are constrained to write you this open letter as a desperate step to secure relief and save their homes and property from an impending unlawful and unwarranted demolition," the lawyer said in the open letter.
How the lands were purchased
In the acquisition of their plots of land and development of their respective homes and properties, Mr Ogunye noted that his clients obtained requisite consents of the state government "to their deeds of assignments, had their respective survey plans hewed from the approved Ojomu Family Layout Plan, and obtained all the necessary building approvals and development permits from the relevant agencies of the Lagos State Government.
"Our clients, numbering over eighty (80) persons, individually purchased and came into possession of their respective landed property at various times many years ago. They all have a common predecessor in title in the Ojomu Chieftaincy Family of Ajiran-Land in Lagos State.
"The title of their predecessor in title, before it was passed onto our clients, was confirmed by a Judgment of the High Court of Justice of Western Nigeria, delivered on the 12th day of December 1960 in Suit No. I/302/55 (Oba Onibeju & Ors. Vs Salumonu Oyebola & Ors.), a judgment that was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Nigeria on the 25th day of January 1965 in Suit No. FSC/268/1963.
"After the emergence of the Lands Use Act, 1978, the said title was further affirmed by a Judgment of the High Court of Lagos State in Suit No. ID/1883/89 (Alhaji Fatai Ajetumobi & Ors vs. Attorney-General of Lagos State, which was delivered on 18th day of October 1991, and which declared that the Ojomu Chieftaincy Family was the holder of the customary right of occupancy over the said land. Eventually, the Lagos State Government, by an Official Gazette No. 15. Vol. 37, 2004, dated 7th day of April 2004, adopted the said judgment, and excised from compulsory global acquisition the entire Lafiaji Village, an excision of which our clients' respective landed property forms a part, down the line."
Demolition
Mr Ogunye claimed that overtime, some landowners built on the said right of way and "constructed huge estates crisscrossing same in the illusion that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway would never be built, without any valid legal title to the land on which they built; or with government officials-assisted fabricated certificates of occupancy with embossed survey-plans (the area coordinates of which truly are that of lands adjacent and proximate to the Right of Way, but which are passed off as that of a land situated within or covering the Right of Way, for the purpose of obtaining certificates of occupancy).
"These persons also either did not obtain valid building approvals and development permits from the relevant agencies of the Lagos State Government or were assisted by corrupt officials of government to obtain doctored documents."
Accusation
The residents accused the minister of deviating from the original right of way "by specifically directing surveyors of the Federal Government of Nigeria (Ministry of Works) on the project to establish a fresh right of way, create a new alignment and alter the road course into the area where their plots of lands and houses were situated, an area which was not covered by the long-established right of way.
"From available information, the new alignment being dictated by the Minister of Works and Federal Controller of Works has not been assimilated by the Office of the Surveyor-General of Lagos State and the Lands Bureau, but curiously, the Office of Development Matters, Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development has served our clients 'Removal Notice on Physical Development Within the Right of Way (RoW) of the Proposed Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project in Lagos State, dated 10th of May 2024, demanding that within seven (7) days of being served the notices, our clients should remove their buildings from the new, arbitrarily established Right of Way, and submit any documents of their landed property to the Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau of Lagos State, Alausa, Lagos State for compensation purposes," Mr Ogunye said.
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One of the estates built on the right of way includes Ocean Bay, the residents claimed.
Mr Ogunye said that his clients were in total support of the construction of the highway but they could not understand why their "legal rights and interests must be sacrificed to please violators of the long-established Right of Way, whose illegally constructed property (houses) can be demolished and removed without any compensation whatsoever, and with justification.
"Why are our clients - law-abiding citizens - being rewarded with oppression, while violators, who knowingly and arrogantly built on the long-established Right of Way are being treated with reverence?" Mr Ogunye asked.
Response
Contacted for a response on Sunday at different times, Mr Umahi's known phone line was busy. A text message was also sent to the same phone line.
But as of the time of filing this report, the minister had yet to respond.
