By Olusegun Ariyo
The management of Jeveta Hotel in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State has petitioned the Lagos State Government over what the management calls encroachment into its premises by the Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area.
The petition, dated February 14, 2024, signed by Moshood Adeleke on behalf of the hotel’s solicitor and titled ‘Re: Blockage of Bankole Sodeke Street and re-encroachment into public open space/road set-back along Ikotun-Igando Road in Alimosho Local Government Area by the owner of Jeveta Hotel’, was also copied Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice.
A petition had initially been served to the Speaker in December last year with regard to the alleged infringement by the hotel management, upon which an invitation was served to the management to appear before the House Committee on Local Government, Chieftaincy and Rural Development on January 12, 2024.
Lawyer to the hotel management, Madebrief Solicitors, however said in the petition that their client acknowledged the invitation but he was out of Nigeria at the time and could not attend the summon.
They expressed dismay that consequent upon the client’s inability to attend the invitation, the Lagos State Building Control Agency, acting on another petition served it by some aggrieved parties, moved into the Bankole Sodeke Street and the open space/road set-back to remove the greenery/flowers planted by the client to beautify the area and improve its aesthetic, in addition to demolishing a public toilet erected by the client to discourage open defecation in the area, as a result of which the area has since become a threat for all the residents in the area.
According to the solicitor, the client is a responsible individual who has over the years shown his adherence to hygienic environment as the people resident in area can testify, the place having been a vast abandoned area that was infested by all kinds of criminals before the clients invested substantial amount of money to reshape the land to make it habitable.
The solicitor expressed surprise that the LCDA has continued to shun the petition against it by erecting an illegal market on the open space, thereby re-creating the past era when hoodlums exploited the lapses to perpetrate criminal activities, even as he also requested that the House of Assembly confirm through documentary evidence if the use of Bankole Sodeke Street in the Alimosho Local Government in the Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area has been changed from a street and access road into a market by the Lagos State government.
“The action of the LCDA in blocking the right of way and access into the street and other adjoining streets is willful recklessness, abuse of power, disregard for the constitution and illegal. We therefore request that a further invitation be extended to our client to appear before your relevant committee to enable him present his own side of the story and assist your hallowed chamber in the investigation of this matter,” the solicitor said in the petition.
