News
Renowned journalist loses N70million home in Lagos demolition *Exonerates Lagos govt
Felix Oguejiofor Abugu, former Editor of The Guardian on Saturday and former Deputy Managing Director of New Telegraph Newspapers, has lost his house in an early morning demolition of houses carried out at the weekend by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
Valued at over N70m, the house where Abugu and his family lived until Friday, April 28, 2023, stood on a plot of land bought 12 years ago from the Baale Adejumolu family of Isolo, and located within the Runview/Mercy Estate owned by FAAN, some five kilometres to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMA), Ikeja, Lagos.
According to reliable FAAN sources, several reasons accounted for the demolition of the 13 or so residential houses that fenced off an undeveloped part of the FAAN land (mainly vegetable farms) from the Runview Estate.
One is that that the narrow swathe of land running from one end of the estate to the other and housing the demolished buildings, with a street in-between to separate them from another set of houses, is “a red zone”, meaning that it is too close to the airport for any non-aviation development to take place, “a very untenable reason,” according to a source, “given the closeness of the standing buildings to the demolished ones.”
Two is that the stretch of land is encumbered, meaning, according further findings, that underneath the land are structures that cannot be built upon, such as a disused fuel pipeline running from NNPC Ejigbo to MMA through less than half of the land bearing the demolished houses (FAAN inspectors who dug underneath were later to confirm that the stretch bearing Mr. Abugu’s land was unencumbered).
Three is that the houses had to be demolished for an internal road to pass from one end of the estate to the Airport Road and create a short-cut for residents who currently have to take a much longer detour into the estate, as an earlier attempt to cut a road through to the Airport Road was reportedly thwarted by some powerful landlords who didn’t want the road to pass in front of their property.
Four is that the Landlords/Residents Association wanted to punish “a stubborn developer who backfilled the canal we had dug as a natural boundary between us and FAAN, leading to the sale of the plots of land that came out of his effort by the Adejumolu family”, an official of the Association disclosed, hence the incitement of FAAN against the “stubborn developer” and his line where landlords had already started receiving their regularization notices before they were withdrawn again.
Five is that some officials of FAAN allegedly wanted their own plots of land in the estate which they couldn’t access when the Adejumolu family still owned the property, and found it convenient to demolish the houses, many of them multi-million naira edifices, with intent to parcel out the lands to themselves much later.
In an interview with reporters in Lagos, Mr. Abugu, a veteran of over three decades in journalism and MD/Editor-in-Chief of AbeyaNews online, said: “I am a distraught land owner here and my family is on the street right now, but let’s be clear about one thing: neither the government of Lagos nor its agencies had anything to do with the demolitions per se. The land belongs to FAAN and it simply paid for the services of the concerned agency of Lagos to demolish our houses and, I must add, unjustifiably. So, away with the drivel about Lagos targeting anyone or group!”
Narrating his ordeal, Abugu further disclosed: “Every single landlord in what was once known as RICHFIELD ESTATE before it changed to RUNVIEW/MERCY ESTATE after ownership of the real estate reverted to FAAN, bought their land from the Adejumolu family. I bought mine in September 2011. Some bought much earlier. But all of us bought from the Adejumolu family on the basis of a court judgment shown to each and every buyer by the family, indicating that the land belonged to the family.
“However, ownership of the land reverted to FAAN after another court ruling whereupon FAAN took over the estate and renamed it RUNVIEW/MERCY ESTATE and invited landlords to come for ownership regularisation’. Even those of us from the side that has now been destroyed were invited but were later denied the privilege of regularisations for reasons that were never clear.
“Indeed, I believe that the reasons for this wicked demolition of our property that some bought 15-20 years back and subsequent displacement of our families and disruption of our lives, are as untenable as they are varied. The truth is that FAAN had no justifiable reasons to demolish our property. If it regularised houses even across the street, what was so offensive about our side of the street that they had to destroy our houses at a time like this and send our families out on the streets?”
Lamenting the situation as it affects his family, Abugu said: “How does one handle this type of situation? This is a property that one put in practically everything one had to be able to develop and live with one’s family and now gbum! And it is gone, just in one hour of merciless destruction! I just don’t know what to do.”
“Over the past year, the ICPC has made significant progress in discharging its mandate; for example, we recovered over ₦13 billion in diverted public funds in September 2024 alone. This is just one of the many ways we have worked tirelessly to fulfil our mandate.”
These were the words with which Musa Aliyu, Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), summed up the immensity of the work the anti-graft agency has been doing in the country towards dealing with official graft in the Nigerian system.
Though he was not definite on those involved in the various scams from which the moneys were recovered from Aliyu, who made the disclosure during the launch of the commission’s 2024-2028 strategic action plan in Abuja on Wednesday, emphasised that the feat resulted from the relentlessness of the agency towards fulfilling its mandate.
It was also a day the ICPC boss disclosed the body’s new focus on digitalising its operations, which he said will position it as a leader in leveraging technology to combat corruption, adding: “We are also embarking on ICT reforms that will digitalise our operations and enable more efficient investigations, case management, and internal processes.
“This transformation will position the Commission as a leader in leveraging technology to combat corruption, keeping us one step ahead of criminal activities in the digital age. The commission is developing a specialised curriculum aimed at enhancing the enforcement capacity of its personnel.
“This initiative equips our officers with the skills and expertise needed to address the complexities of corruption cases with the highest standards of professionalism and efficiency.
“Additionally, we are decentralising the anti-corruption effort by empowering state governments through the mobilisation of State Attorneys General. This approach ensures that state governments are equipped with the tools, knowledge, and resources necessary to effectively combat corruption at the local level.
“Because we believe prevention is better than cure, we have intensified efforts to identify institutional and administrative vulnerabilities through System Studies and Corruption Risk Assessments. We have also continued to engage with the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs) in Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), reinforcing our grassroots monitoring mechanisms.”
Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command are combing around to ascertain whether Abayomi Oshoke, a 45-year-old, a resident of Mango Oke-Ata, actually took his own life because he could no longer continue with the present hardship in Nigeria or there are other factors to it.
This was after confirming the incident, which reportedly took place around 6:00am on September in the suburb of Abeokuta, the state capital, through Omolola Odutola, the command’s spokesman, on Tuesday.
Odutola, who confirmed that the deceased consumed an insecticide to end it all due to the hardship he was allegedly facing, explained that his sister, identified as Funmilayo, reported the incident to the Lafenwa Police Division after discovering her brother’s lifeless body in his room, with a bottle of insecticide found beside him.
She said: “A friend of the deceased visited his home and asked to see him. Upon entering the room, he discovered the victim’s body on the floor and raised the alarm after finding that the victim had ingested a mixture of insecticide and herbal concoction.
“He left a note written in Yoruba language, explaining the reasons behind his decision. In the note, he expressed frustration with his life and stated that he felt he had no choice but to end it. A discreet investigation is currently underway.”
António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, has been caught in the web of the ongoing internecine conflict in the Middle East, with Israel, one of the major actors slamming a ban on him, which forbids him from entering their country, for allegedly siding with Iran, another major actor on the opposite side.
Israel Katz, stopping short at calling the UN boss as a collaborator, had declared in a statement via X on Wednesday: “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil. This is an anti-Israel Secretary-General who lends support to terrorists, rapists, and murderers.”
The reaction came hours after Iran fired about 180 missiles into Israel, with Guterres, calling for cessation of hostilities from both sides, saying: “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire.”
Indicating that the statement did not sit well with his country Katz, while declaring the UN boss persona non grata, criticised him for “his anti-Israel policy since the beginning of the war,” marking a fresh chapter in the series of escalations, that saw Israel’s heavy bombardment of parts of Lebanon in what they said was a campaign to flush out Hezbollah, the militant group, with headquarters in Beirut.
Reports say, since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas gunmen, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, more than 41,689 people, have been killed in the operation, quoting Hamas-run health ministry.
Katz’s reaction is consistent with the consistent position of Jerusalem against the global body on the conflict, especially on Gaza and the West Bank, particularly on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, with Israel alleging that a number of the agency’s staff members had been involved in the 7 October attacks.
This resulted in the dismissal of nine staff of the UN body, after officials launched investigations on the claim, which saw some of the funders withdrawing their support and later reinstating same, found them culpable of probable guilt.
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