Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu has asked President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the demolition of properties owned by the Igbo in Lagos State.
There have been demolition of plazas at the trade fair complex in Ojo Local Government Area.
The exercise was carried out by officials of the state Ministry of Physical Planning, the state Building Control Agency, the state Urban Renewal Agency, and the state Physical Planning Permit Authority.
On Tuesday, a former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, who visited the Auto Spare Parts and Machinery Dealers Association section of the market, alleged that the plazas were pulled down despite valid approvals. Obi was accompanied by some federal lawmakers, including Senators Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South) and Victor Umeh (Anambra Central).
However, the state Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Olumide Oluyinka countered Obi, saying the demolition was not targeted at Igbo traders.
He said the affected buildings had no valid approvals and that they were pulled down over safety concerns.
During the commissioning of projects in Aba, Abia State, on Friday, Kalu urged President Tinubu to prevail on the Lagos State government to stop the demolition.
He appealed: ‘Mr. President, I also want to say that the destruction and demolition of the houses and offices of our brothers in Lagos makes our hearts bleed.
‘Mr. President, for some of them who have not gotten the right documents, my plea to you is to appeal to the governor of Lagos State to keep accommodating our brothers and allow them to rectify their documents instead of destruction.
‘Let them come into the room, find a way, and regularise some of these documents. It bleed our hearts that houses are being destroyed in these hard times.
‘But I know that Mr. President, who cares for the Igbo, who made the Igbo one of the first commissioners of finance in his administration, will listen to the yearning of Igbo’.
Kalu said that the President should be commended for making more funds available to states through reforms.
‘I want us to be very vocal in praising the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on how he has made resources available to the states when he removed the oil subsidy.
‘He did not keep that money in Abuja, he sent it to the states. It is my challenge to the Commissioner for Information and all the media houses in Abia State to give credit to whom credit is due’.
The Deputy Speaker appealed for the establishment of a seaport in the southeast, saying it would boost trade and economic activities in the area.
