By Some structures belonging to a medium business was yesterday pulled down in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State after the government claimed that the structures were illegal. This situation have generated heated comments from sympathizers of the owner who lost out on the demolition and called out the government for not been sensitive enough to cater for its citizens who invested in businesses, only to demolish the buildings, leaving them to start searching for another place to carry out their businesses.
In plight of the situation, Your View, a program been aired on TVC put a call through to Steve Ayorinde, Lagos Commissioner of Information and Strategy, who responded on behalf of the government concerning the demolition.
He said contrary to reports that occupants of the building were not properly informed about the government action, he said they were served notification of illegal structure in March 5th 2016, which neither the owner of the house nor the tenants responded to as expected by the government.
He then proceeded that a demolition notice was then sent in on March 21th, 2016. He said the notice was pasted on the building, some red markings were made and also, the department involved took photographs of the notice as pasted for record purposes.
He further said that the building was demolished because of its illegality and non-approval from the government, and not because of fees been discussed on social media. He said both the landlord and tenant were served beforehand a quit notice, and the government could not be held responsible for the loss been incurred, either by the landlord or tenant.
He concluded that, all landlords should be cautious about erecting additional building to an already existing structures. He called the need for Urban and Physical Planning Department approval for such structures to be added in order to prevent building collapse among other dangers attached.
