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Building Demolitions: Lagos action an affront and breach of law – Victor Umeh
Victor Umeh, former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Senator for Anambra Central, has condemned the recent bulldozing operations at Lagos’s Trade Fair Complex, labeling the Lagos State Government’s actions as unauthorized and a violation of legal boundaries.
“What the Commissioner for Physical Planning in Lagos State did was an affront and a breach of the law.”
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On Monday’s episode of Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, Senator Umeh took aim at the Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning, calling the operations an abuse of authority.
“The issue is about dealing with human beings with consideration of the law. The country is governed by the constitution and a set of laws,” Umeh said. “I am disappointed to hear that the Commissioner for Physical Planning in Lagos State came to justify his illegal action.”
He emphasized that the Trade Fair Complex operates as a federal entity overseen by the national government.
“The Trade Fair Complex is the subject matter where the Lagos State Government moved in with heavy machines to destroy people’s investments and buildings without justification,” he stated.
Umeh noted that properties under federal ownership fall under the purview of national bodies, not state administrations. “Federal lands are under the control of federal agencies, not the state government. There are federal lands and there are state lands. If you go to Lagos, any property belonging to the Federal Government is recorded in the Federal Land Registry in Ikoyi, not in the Land Registry in Alausa.”
As a fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Umeh argued that Lagos officials lacked any legal basis to intervene on federal territory.
“What the Commissioner for Physical Planning in Lagos State did was an affront and a breach of the law,” he said.
He further explained that the Trade Fair Management Board has exclusively handled the site’s operations, from development permissions to collecting fees and rents.
“The Lagos State Government has never gone there to carry out any of those functions until about two weeks ago when they moved in to bring down the buildings on September 25,” he noted.
Labeling the events as an unauthorized incursion, the senator revealed that neither the management board nor the vendors received prior warnings about the demolitions.
“They were also shocked that the Lagos State Government could move into that place without notice. Even the traders were not written or questioned over anything,” he said.
Umeh rejected claims that the demolished structures were built illegally on waterways or drainage areas, asserting that “All those buildings that were erected there were approved by the Trade Fair Management Board.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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