4th October, 2019
Lagos State Government on Friday read the riot act to residents and property owners in the state who have built on the right of way of various drainage channels in the state to remove such properties immediately or have them removed by agents of the state government.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Drainage and Water Resources, Joe Igbokwe, the State Government warned that the several efforts it was making in ensuring free flow of water was being hampered by the activities of several individuals who have built across drainage channels, thus causing flooding.
He cited the specific example of Bayo Osinowo Street near China Town Unit system as one of such flagrant disregard for the state drainage master plan, stressing that all the structures on that corridor were illegal structures obstructing the free flow of water in the China Town Drainage system and must go.
Igbokwe said severally, the property owners in the area had been served with contravention notices by the state government, but that they had been recalcitrant and had even gone a step further by resorting to self-help all in the quest to gain public sympathy.
He described the hiring of a buggy by some of the residents of Bayo Osinowo Street in China Town to clear to redirect the channel and clear the canal in what they term as “self-help” amidst media blitz as an exercise in futility, self-serving and cosmetics, stating that all the physical structures as presently constructed on that street were on the rIght of way of the China Town alignment, constituting the major impediment to free flow of water from the drains.
The Special Adviser maintained that this warning would serve as a final notice to residents of all such areas where permanent structures had been erected on the right of way of various channels and canals to remove all such structures immediately or have them removed by the state.
He reiterated the commitment of the present administration to safety of lives and properties of every resident, adding that the government would not fold its arms and allow the activities of a few selfish and lawless individuals to put the lives of millions of law abiding citizens in peril.
He emphasized that the state had continued to deploy more men to the various locations in the state where its flood abatement gangs were operating to complement the efforts of the main contractor that was saddled with the task of cleaning up all drainage channels in the state.