Last week in an interview with Arise TV. Honorable Commissioner for Environment and water resources, Tokunbo Wahab said we cannot fix Lagos if we are sentimental.
‘In our quest to make Lagos better, we know no religion, no party affiliation, no tribe or any connection, when flooding starts, it knows none of the above.
We have been told that Lagos will go under in 50years, should we fold our hands and watch that prediction come to pass?
If you build where you should not build, trespass or disrupt the environment or you erect a structure on the right of way or where water should flow, we will remove your structure. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Christian, Muslim, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa or a Government worker, as long as it is illegal, we will remove it.
“Development is a function of proper and deliberate planning, it’s not by accident and Governance is not a tea party, you have to make very tough decisive decisions that will impact people”.
On the issue of Mende
The developers were given approval to do 28units, but the developers ended up doing 38units.
We removed the portion that was sitting on Odo Iya- Alaro and the left the remaining part of the estate.
On the issue of approval to build, when you are given 5 and you build 10, does it make it right?
‘’You can’t put illegality on something and expect it to stand, your illegality will not turn to legality just because you’ve been there for years.’’
He advises that investors in real estate and those who buy properties in Lagos should thoroughly conduct their due diligence, ensuring proper unit approvals and verifying that buildings are not constructed on drainages or designated areas and that they should be sure that developer adhere to the plan that they got approval from Cc @hctokunbowahab