LASG DEBUNKS ALLEGATION OF ILLEGALITY, IMPUNITY IN CONSTRUCTING LAGOS HOMS FLATS AT OMOLE PHASE II “We have operated within the provisions of the Physical Planning, Urban Development, Urban Regeneration and Building Control Law 2010”, it says The Lagos State Government, Tuesday debunked allegation of illegality and impunity made against it by residents of Omole Phase 11 Residential Scheme over construction of some blocks of flats at the Estate saying it has done nothing wrong by constructing the flats which, it said, is part of the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (Lagos HOMS). Channels Television had on Monday, August 4, 2014, featured a protest by some Residents of the Estate who accused the Government of breaking its own laws and manifesting impunity by erecting the blocks of flats adding that the Government had earlier been written on the matter but refused to respond. But briefing newsmen at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre at the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Town Planner Toyin Ayinde, explained that there was nothing wrong in the Government action which, according to him, is an initiative to increase housing stock for the benefit of the entire public and citizenry of Lagos State. The Commissioner, who was accompanied at the briefing by his counterpart in the Information and Strategy Ministry, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, among other members of the State Executive Council, said Government “has operated within the provisions of the Physical Planning, Urban Development, Urban Regeneration and Building Control Law 2010 which allows for the Governor to give assent to Special Building Projects”. He said in due regard of that provision, the Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), issued an Executive Order to empower such projects to be located pursuant of the authority vested in him as Governor “that any Lagos HOMS project within an existing Government Scheme/Built-up area is Special Building Project under the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning Law 2010”. According to the Commissioner, the Governor’s Executive Order also empowers all concerned Agencies of the State Government to give priority to all matters relating to Lagos HOMS Project reiterating further that the project is a housing initiative of the Government meant to address and solve the State’s inadequate housing problem. Noting that the State is constrained of land with just 3,577 square kilometres against a population of over 22 million people, the Commissioner declared, “This population cannot be accommodated in low density development; it is not sustainable”. He said in order to adequately address the problem, Government “must begin to shift from the policy of low density development to increased density as done in all other places in the world if we must accommodate the people and their activities” adding that the Ikoyi and Lekki axis have been experiencing the increased density over the last few years. The Commissioner, who appealed to citizens to be tolerant in the process of change, expressed the commitment of Government to increasing the housing stock in the State and the determination to continue to seize every opportunity to do so pointing out that the plots upon which the HOMS are erected are abandoned parcels of land taken over “for overriding public purposes”. Recalling that an inventory of lands and properties is still in progress throughout the State “to see how much more advantage the Government can take in public interest”, TPL Ayinde also denied the allegation that Government did not respond when the Residents wrote adding that both the Commissioner for Housing and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry had attended to the Estate Residents’ Executive and visited the Lagos HOMS Project with them. “He had assured them that, like many other HOMS projects, it will be perfectly finished and be environmentally friendly”, TPL Ayinde said adding that the Housing Commissioner also assured them that the State Government was committed to the security of every citizen of the State. “The Government is committed to making the environment more livable and will continue to solicit the support of the good people of Lagos”, he said. The Commissioner, who added that he had also attended the meeting of residents of Omole Phase 1, assured that if he is invited by the Residents Association of Phase 11, he would attend to them adding that as a Public Servant he is ready at all times to attend to the needs of the public who employed him. Fielding questions from newsmen after the briefing, TPL Ayinde appealed to the residents to be tolerant of each other including the new families that would be coming in through the Lagos HOMS adding that by the way the HOMS is structured Government was committed to building a society where the children of the rich and the poor would interact and grow together. According to him, “The HOMS is structured in such a way that the children of the rich will interact and grow with the children of the poor so that we don’t build a class society”. He added, “Let us not forget that some of us were born in Mushin and some in Bariga, but we have been privileged to live in Omole. We should not even forget that some of us have to travel very far to get to our State capitals and take okada to get to our villages. So in all of these, we must be tolerant of one another”. On the question of the type of buildings, the Commissioner said the Lagos HOMS is not a high rise project or even a medium rise pointing out that a medium rise building is anything from six floors upwards. Assuring that the Lagos HOMS project would not impact negatively on the Estate, the Commissioner, however, hinted that the time would come when Lagos would be compelled to imitate Singapore in building high rises adding, “We have arrived at the reality that Lagos will continue to grow with two floor buildings, with three floor buildings, with four floor buildings, even with five floor buildings”. “There will actually be a time when we will be another Singapore if we must accommodate the kind of population we have. It may not go in one fell-swoop. Singapore left their three floor buildings and first started with ten floors. But go to Singapore today, majority of those ten floors have been brought down to make way for the 20-floor and 30-floor buildings- of residential buildings, not commercial”, he said. On Security, the Commissioner, who described Omole Phase 11 Estate as one of those areas that are being heavily policed by the RRS, recalled an experience in which he travelled through the Estate from Akute to Ogudu by 2.a.m. and encountered the RRS at every 100 metres adding that the addition of 24 families to the estate would not be a security threat. In his own remarks, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, reiterated that the State Government has not committed any illegality by locating the HOMS in the Estate adding that the coming of an additional 24 families would not impact negatively on the Estate. Appealing to the residents to be more tolerant, the Commissioner, who said Government, has the right to build on the existing space in the area added, “Let us accept to live together so that we do not end up creating a class society”. Also present at the briefing were the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Physical planning and Urban Development, Architect Yetunde Ajayi and the Special Adviser on Housing, Hon. Jimoh Ajao as well as other government functionaries.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 19:08:13 +0000
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