Alaka Estate allottees on Wednesday urged the Managing Director of the Lagos Building Investment Company PLC (LBIC), Mr. Olusola Faleye and the company’s contractor to cease any construction on the demolished portion of the allotted land of Blocks 130 and 131.
‘It is disheartening to find that, against all forms of protocol, civility and respect to the fundamental rights to own a property, which is enshrined in Section 43 of the 1999 Constitution as Amended, LBIC, in cohort with some developers without any knowledge of the legal owners of the property, specifically on the 8th of February 2025, went to level the site and began an illegal development on the land’, the allottees said.
They also urged Faleye to return to the earlier agreement with the legal owners of the property and reach an agreement signed, sealed and delivered by the leadership of LBIC and the legal owners of the property before any construction under any guise can begin.
At a press conference in Alaka, the allottees, through their solicitors, Samuel Shodipo and Associates, accused the LBIC Managing Director and his others of wrongful appropriation of their property.
They accused officials of the Lagos State Government of igniting crisis and working against the 16 December 2024 agreement.
‘Shortly after the demolition, a meeting was held with the MD of LBIC on 16 December 2024, in their office wherein the MD agreed with the legal owners of the property after presenting their allocation letters, that an amicable resolution taking into concern the perspective of the legal owners of the property must have been reached. He then counseled the legal owners present at the meeting to meet, forge a collective stand and get back to meet with him on the way forward’, they said.
The urged Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to call the LBIC Managing Director to order.
‘It is no gain saying that the legal owners had their property demolished due to its dilapidated state as a result of the frequent flooding of the area whenever it rained, which unfortunately permeated the structure so much so that the building began to sink. Consequently, His Excellency Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu met with some of the legal owners of the building in 2019 and promised to demolish the said buildings, build a new structure on the land and handover the completed building to the original owners of the property’, the allottees alleged.
They also accused Faleye, the contractor and others of plotting to forcefully take over the property, adding: ‘After a while that nothing seemed to be forthcoming from the initial discussion with the governor, LBIC came to demolish the property without carrying the legal owners of the property along on 28 November 2024’.
