LG Boss Wants Slums In Apapa-Iganmu Tackled

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Chairman, Apapa-Iganmu Local Council Development Area of Lagos State, South West Nigeria,  Dr. Samuel Adedayo, who lamented that residents of the area live under alarming  conditions, also stressed that the council had been overwhelmed by massive unemployed  youths who reside in the slums, adding that the level of criminal activities by some of  them was on the increase.

He said the need to attend to the slum challenges in the area was important because of  the huge population that lived under terrible conditions.

According to Adedayo, the makeshift houses in the slums are built with planks which  further makes the entire area populated by not less than 200,000 people susceptible to  fire.

He noted that recently, the council had had to come out with a bye-law forbidding any  developer from erecting makeshift houses with plank.

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According to him, “the need to attract the attention of the federal, state and  international donors to come and see how people live in the slums in this LCDA has become  imperative. There are so many buildings built with planks, so, fire incidence is a common  occurrence and that is why we have made laws that forbid erection of makeshift buildings,  while the idea is to eventually phase out those buildings.

“Apapa-Iganmu is very notorious for crime because of the numerous slums and we have been  having running battle with them since we assumed office. They said they were unemployed  and we provided 230 jobs for them. That was what reduced the crime rate but these people  are not employable because they have no certificates.”

The council boss, who spoke on various development issues in the area, also noted that in  order to reduce corruption in the system, elected political office holders should be made  to work on part-time basis.

According to him, “Nigerian democracy cannot be sustained because of the huge costs. If  there is no oil today, how do governments at the various levels survive? Running a local  government, for instance, is not supposed to be a full-time job because if oil dries up  today, there will be problems and as such, running the council should be a part-time  arrangement where the leaders meet after regular jobs to take decisions on development  issues.”

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