The Lagos State Government has defended the demolition of buildings at the Trade Fair Complex, Ojo, insisting the demolition was purely technical and not targeted at any ethnic group.
Recall, the State Government, in September, began demolition of unsafe and illegal buildings at the Trade Fair Complex.
Olumide Oluyinka, Hon. Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development dismissed claims of ethnic victimisation during an interview on Channels Television’s the Morning Brief on Thursday.
“That is not true,” he argued, claiming that “We have been to Owode Onirin, Idumota, and Ikeja. It has no ethnic colouration. The fact is that we just have to do our work. There is nothing ethnic here; it is purely technical.”
Oluyinka stressed that Lagos State had carried out similar enforcement actions in other parts of the state.
“There has been a series of enforcement carried out on Lagos Island. I personally led a team that even touched the palace of a white cap chief. This is Nigeria for all of us. The facts are clear; when you are in a place, you must live by the law of that place. It is as simple as that,” he said.
Olayinka said the Trade Fair Management compounded the problem by leasing land to private developers without following due process.
“What we have seen is a situation where the management is leasing out land to third parties who bring in their own consultants and contractors to build without recourse to the law.
“That day, we showed them that there was no meaningful layout there. We saw a three-storey building just two feet from the road kerb. When you open the shop doors, they swing over the road. Do you want to tell me a serious architect designed that? That cannot be possible,” he explained.
Earlier, the Senior Special Assistant on New Media to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Jubril Gawat, confirmed the operation in a post on X.
According to him, the exercise targeted “illegal developments, structures without statutory approvals, defective structures, and buildings erected on road setbacks and drainages.”
Also present were officials of the Office of Infrastructure, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, and security agencies who provided backup.
Two weeks earlier, the state government suspended all reclamation projects across Lagos over environmental risks.
Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, said reclamation activities were spreading on wetlands, floodplains, and lagoons without proper approvals.
He listed Parkview, Banana Island, Osborne, Ikoyi, Victoria Island Extension, Lekki, Ajah, Oworonshoki, and parts of Ikorodu among affected areas.
“Lagos’s low-lying topography and fragile ecosystem cannot withstand indiscriminate reclamation activities without grave consequences,” Wahab warned.
