Ayodele Ademiluyi, a legal practitioner and member of the House of Representatives representing the Eti-Osa Federal Constituency has issued a warning to the government of Lagos State over the demolition of informal dwellings at Eti-Osa constituency. He also threatened legal action against the government over the 48 hours vacation notice issued to illegal occupants of Ikoyi Towers.
Ademiluyi, in a statement released Sunday, called the decision by the government “illegal”, stating that Ikoyi Towers is a property of the Federal Government and therefore not under the jurisdiction of the Lagos state government.
He berated the Lagos state government for attributing inhabitants at the Tower as squatters stating that their intention to reside there is as a result of the state’s housing costs.
“The supposed “squatters” are my poor and homeless constituents, who cannot afford exorbitant rent rates in the affluent quarters of my Constituency and who are forced to take housing in the abandoned Ikoyi Towers as shown by the eviction of the dwellers under the Osborne Bridge to Dolphin Towers,” he noted in the press statement.
Ademiluyi accuses the state government of having a “ulterior and sinister motive” for its decision made evident by the visit of Tokunbo Wahab, the Lagos state government’s commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources who inspected some identified sites, including the abandoned Federal Government property, Ikoyi Towers.
“I beg to ask, which law permits the Lagos State Government to be the inspector and guardian of the properties of the federal government of Nigeria?,” he said.
“I hereby give notice that where the Lagos State Government, its officials, agents, sentries, and proxies proceed to enforce their purported and illegal 48 hours’ notice of eviction against my constituents, taking refuge from the harsh housing crisis inflicted by the disproportionate economy, I will be left with no choice than to proceed by way of a legal action against the Lagos State Government thereto,” Ademiluyi said.
