Lagos gives Lekki illegal building owners seven days to vacate… 

The Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, has issued a seven-day contravention notice to owners of buildings on Orchid Road, Agungi, Ajiran, Conservation Road, Osapa all along the Ikota River.

The Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Kunle Adesina, made this known in an X post on Monday in Lagos.

Adesina said Wahab made the declaration alongside the Special Adviser to the Governor on Environment, Olakunle Rotimi-Akodu, after an inspection tour of the Ikota River corridor.

He added that the inspection tour was to ascertain the level of compliance by property owners whose buildings and fences fall within the approved seven-metre setback on both sides of the channel.

Meanwhile, the commissioner urged the residents to respect the State Drainage Master Plan to avoid property demolition.

He stressed that there was no going back on the decision of the state to enforce the law and reclaim drainage setbacks following the expiration of the notices issued.

He said the Nigerian Conservation Foundation had earlier written a petition complaining about several distortions saying that there had been a lot of distortion on their roads.

He noted that the distortion affected the natural habitat of animals in the foundation as well as on Orchid road where a lot of damage had been done to the drainage channel designed to take stormwater from the communities into the Lagoon.

According to him, the state government had been humane in its approach to reclaim the drainage right of way hence the review of the setback alignment from the original seven metres to six metres after a meeting with property owners to reduce the number of structures to be affected.

The commissioner and his team also visited Oral Estate II along system 156 Igbo Efon where the Primary Channel was found to have been totally blocked by illegal structures without drainage aprovals.