Lagos serves contravention notice on Ikoyi property owners, issues 7-day ultimatum

The Lagos State Government has served contravention notice to property owners along the corridor of Shoreline Estate, Onikoyi Estate, Park View and Banana Island whose properties fall within channel setbacks.

The government gave a 7-day ultimatum to these house owners in these areas to remove their fences encroaching on drainage channels.

This was made known by the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, while addressing newsmen after an inspection of some areas in Ikoyi, including the State House, and Dodan Barracks over the weekend.

Wahab said that many buildings in the area failed to leave the standard 3-metre distance to the drainage channel

The commissioner, however, said instead of 3 metres, the government would be magnanimous and demand only 2.5-metre space, adding that any building that fell short would be removed.

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He urged owners of such buildings to voluntarily remove such encroaching fences before the expiration of the ultimatum, warning that “if they fail to do so and allow the government to use taxpayers’ funds to enforce, property owners would be surcharged for the expenses incurred.”

The Director of Public Affairs, Lagos State Ministry of Environment, Kunle Adeshina, in a statement on Sunday, quoted the commissioner as saying

“On investigation, we found out that the first property situated along Onikoyi/ Banana Island collector situated inside Onikoyi Estate left 2.5 metres for the drainage setback and for us to have a balanced situation we will magnanimously adopt 2.5 metres which is smaller than the 3 metres required by law.”

The statement further quoted Wahab as saying that “property owners and residents along the aforementioned collector drain would be given the next seven days to move their fences on both sides of the channel while observing the 2.5-metre drainage setback. Enforcement will commence immediately after the expiration of the mandatory notice.”

He advised property owners and residents to voluntarily move the fences by themselves before the commencement of enforcement saying that if they failed to do so and allowed the Government to use taxpayers’ funds to enforce, property owners would be surcharged for the expenses incurred.