Commissioner For Physical Planning & Urban Devt On Lagos Demolitions +More

[Music] [Laughter] thank you for staying with us don't thereare I shall keep our secret secret yes for weeks now stories of demolition of properties in Lagos have been trending that why you can Trend it in fact for years this has been a very touchy issue many blame the government for allowing these properties to be developed before being demolished While others say developers are the ones who are guilty but while the blame game is many ongoing many people have lost valuables they've lost money they've lost their life savings look at what happened at the mandevillas during the week they say that those properties were built by a developer anyway what do I know we have the commissioner the Lago State commissioner for physical planning and Urban Development with us this morning engineer UA olum good morning thank you very much and thank you for coming it's a pleasure let Begin by saying well done right now I wouldn't like to be in your shoes neither would I like to be in the shoes of the commissioner for the environment I think the two of you right now are the most unpopular people in Lagos no please put it this way P1 P P1 what is pe1 Public Enemy Number One so Mr commissioner um this master plan of Lagos that you all are now bringing back it seems because there have been a number of years where developers um homeowners just did exactly what they wanted what went wrong that they were able to do that and some of those properties have been standing for 10 15 years and you all now wake up that this is not in the master plan it's got to go yeah thank you very much um let me first start by saying that um plans are made for for certain period of times when you have mod City plants prepared for an area uh it runs for probably between 10 to 20 years and we are settled with the responsibility of ensuring the production of those plants as well as monitoring the compliance however um you find cases that um a lot of people um deliberately otherwise just on their own uh decides to do whatever um they think is suitable for them which unfortunately is quite wrong and we have the responsibility to ensure that plants are produced for benefit of people and that we um oversee the control however um if you look at Lagos what we have now in terms of um uh monitoring we have a offices in all the 2057 lcdas in Lagos and um if you take for example um I now you have uh one uh office there you know it will be practically um difficult for that office to to oversee the whole of that area and um the next phase we are looking at now it's um having uh um as many as possible 2 3 4 five depending on the area offices almost like what uh NEPA is doing you you agree with me that you cannot have one NEPA office in the local government that would be completely chaotic so for them to be able to have um Outreach there as many as possible so and that's why they're able to go out if you don't pay on time your lines will be disconnected so that's the kind of thing we are moving on in the next phase now however in terms of uh violation a lot has to do with uh people apart from individual which I must confess maybe the awareness is not uh fully total in terms of people knowing uh the importance of building planning permit approval now for the um estate developers they cannot claim ignorance of that that's not possible however what we have seen over time is that um approvals are granted and deliberately um they go beyond their Bound in terms of the Soviet plan um like in the case of mday um which is also very very common with the developers especially those of them that very close to Cana areas of the feeling that okay this is a loose land and uh you know so a layout approv for like maybe 30 units you know they will now want to expand by adding one or two or three you know there and of course I can't rule out a compromise on our staff and we've started very aggressively on that now very very serious just two days ago we are discussing with um uh lbs in terms of ethical value and Leadership uh uh models to be able to upscale them so that they will be able to distinguish between right and wrong you know that we've observed was lacking no but the the important thing is that um a wrong is always a wrong okay and we must write them and that's we that's why we are going out now very aggressively that look it's a joint collaboration the efforts we are putting down is not only for the benefits of the government it's also for their own benefit they have a beting yes environment you know and I like the fact that this the government is now looking at ensuring that its own staff taking responsibilities is is not to be taken lightly and we have to applaud your your government for your your Administration or your authorities for taking responsibility for some of these things it is not something to be taken lightly and it is admirable and appreciated but how many people have been terminated how many of them have had their appointments terminated as a result of this have been disciplined or disciplined in any way because there error to them is an error has cost many other people billions life savings life savings lives health and all of those things so how many people have been penalized as a result of that kind of activity um you must agree with me that uh in government we don't just lay off people you know there are procedure processes that follow the processes issued you answer some level panels are set up and right now as I speak we have about three cases under investigation you know we have about three cases and the result of uh uh the investigation will determine the ca of action whether it's going to be the motion whether it going to be instant dismissal or whatever we have three cases that are ongoing how many people are inv in the 30 cases how many people are involved um normally um whoever is the head takes absolute responsibility in the course of answering the query or facing the panel there may be other lower names that may come up but the the the uh leader takes uh uh the lead in that now you cited sorry you you cited the case of you know mday and all of that yes how did those things happen I saw that video and I were discussing it earlier where the commissioner for the environment was asking whether they had set papers and a good number of saying of them were saying that they didn't have those papers including the chairman of the association in fact they couldn't answer they couldn't even answer and all those things so how did those happen they didn't just start yesterday they didn't start in this Administration I dare say they didn't even start in this Republic yes they started way back how did those things happen yeah thank you very much you see prior to um 2022 June July um um realiz ing the enity of the challenge we are facing here the governor of Babu now um made a serious effort to ensure that the building control agencies it's heavily fortified right now we have 80 armed mobile policemen in that unit now prior to that I must tell you it's extremely very very difficult and believe in me there is nowhere in Lagos you probably do any construction that officers will not be there as a way of serving a caution notice or there but either um you have from uh laspa that's the planning permit or building control lapar or the material testing who are there to verify the standard and quality of what is been done or the safety Commission Now the has been that uh notices are served at infancy level if they are lucky uh and when they go out to serve this notice they'll probably go maybe one or two officer and what you find on site is um a band of and all the likes you know we harass them sometimes the officers are uh injured by way of attack and things like that it's only um from uh like I said July 2022 that we have a full-fledged uh agency that can now face even two weeks ago myself and some team we went around um and we got to a site that has um two policemen uh as security there and he was trying to stop us from going in until my own policemen got in there so you can imagine that kind of thing when an officer two or three of them go to a place it will be pretty difficult for them to do any enforcement and that is what has been happening then because then the power to demolish was very very limited because we don't have demolition agency then and when we have contraventions like that we have to write up to the governor before it's approved before you go and get uh demolition uh bers and things like that but right now we have everything we can take full charge we can take full control and that's why we are going now very seriously outside and good enough that's why we have it took me a lot of time and I must thank the Esco for approving the amnesty period for people because what we have uh from lands you have about uh around 500,000 that have been issued in terms of consent of CFO now in terms of approval that we have issued is far far from there last year alone we got um about uh uh 7,877 applications people seeking approval out of which about 5,864 were granted approval for the whole of the state so if you if you want to uh uh interpolate now you say okay let's say roughly 6,000 per for 20 years that's 120,000 out of 500,000 you can see the Gap that's about uh uh 20 25% there about now right now how we have a drone uh capture off the O of Lagos States we know all the buildings that are on the states and we can determine from our record those of them with approval those of them without approval that's why they have this opportunity now because there's no way you can run to now the system we have now can capture real time if you drop a load of granite in your site 10: p.m. on a particular dat we will know because we have 24/7 drone capturing we will know so nothing can be hidden now because you want to come for approval and you are presenting a fully developed building as if you are just starting we will know Mr Lum thanks I will assume therefore since you have a drone that captures everything I will assume therefore that you are aware of the the piece of land between marua and Freedom Way in Lei and the area which is designated in the master plan as the green area and some people trying to appropriate cre the land now and they've got 15 policemen stationed there permanently to prevent anybody from talking to them at all and that that anybody includes government no it cannot be I me you know it cannot be but we have raised this issue before and they are still there they will be we spoke about it a few two weeks ago you agree with me that what the environment is doing now in terms of clean up of Lagos at appropriate time we will clear them they can be bigger than the law that's clear they cannot be bigger than the law I went on two weeks ago I saw what they are doing around the police stations and formations it's completely out of law because you are police station or whatever you now build chanties in front no we are going to approach them and we are writing to the commissioner of police they have to clear up it doesn't beit the environment the nobody is bigger than the law the law is clear so what about the buildings at the that you spoke about these are estate land and it's a Pity and uh it's very good for us that we are taking the stand very early now because before you do a build uh development of a building within an nestates whoever is a developer either is getting the land uh allocation from government from ntda or you are buying from Theon L you first must clear the land use purpose for that land that's the starting point before you purchase your land you have to clear from land that is this property designated for this right purpose if it is agreed and you buy it for development you cannot get approval okay the ones in I we understand are of them most of them are Greek Land and BYT going to remove all those hold on the removal is not just like that they can request for for Chang plants are Dynamic from time to time we review but the fact as at now is that what those LS are dis for is not the purpose for what they intending to do now and for that purpose they cannot get approval and what the law says is that for exit land you first must get your layout approval even land that are G on exision to families you must get approval of the layout from the ministry and you have a department for that uh Department matters development matters we Grant the layout approval before you now approach um last part that's uh planning permit authority to get individual approval for all those buildings now on their own they have divided into plots even sometimes as small as 200 square m and now they are selling in some cases they are even finished selling our brothers in diaspora sending him money for something they don't know by the time they come to build now there will be problem and that's why we are starting now at infancy level to stop them because they cannot get approval for those lands um let me ask you something there a lot of trees in areas such as eoi have been cut down is that with the approval of the state no individual has right to cut down any trees no no individual has right a lot however however um if I guess where you are going um you probably want to compare Eco of today with the co of 30 years back now like we said plan in itself is dynamic it moves with time and we have to respond like I said um development plans within an area are reviewed over time now the the scheme in VII is been red viewed so when you have that kind of revision you can see now that we have Road expansion in thei M you have street lights that are being worked on now and we are also planning for water so when you have uh development like this um some area will probably have to go in terms of uh um greens but however whatever we are doing because you cannot say you are planning a City without recognition for nature yeah they are always done in a recognition of nature because those are things that will enhance the value of even what we are developing AB Kim is asking you says we should ask you right know he wants to ask you the commissioner for physical planning those buildings around waterways marked for removal particularly within AA when are they going to carry out the task a building inside AA government that was built with tax taxpayers money I think he wants to said how will this be managed which uh that's is it government a government well abim you may have to explain whether it's a government U build said that there are some building that were marked okay okay now I'm happy that somebody has uh confirmed to the fact that the building is marked by the time they go there now to uh remove they will say they are not giving notice there is a procedure approved procedure that we follow in the process of removal we don't just go to a place and remove we go there and serve you notice and expect you to to respond and in your response we look at it if it is something that can still be uh managed in terms of okay remove this do that do that fine if it is not we'll give you notice that please this cannot stay and we will remove it you heard what the commissioner for environment said the discourse started as far back as um November last year and they got here this we in may now and they got here in May and they are still saying that they are not giving notice in not possible he said it was tuni Bell when he was commissioner for the environment who them we don't just go and moreover in the ministry we have um appeals committee which we are even appealing now to be made a tribunal so that is completely off the ministry that if you are dissatisfied in any way you can approach them we can they've had cases that they've treated that we've been found guilty and we we we made the necessary compensation in terms of putting the person back talking about compensation son is asking during the mate demolitions the Lego State officer cited 1974 plans where a property is built after due approvals by the building control agency who are representatives of the state should demolitions be affected with due compensation now um you agree with me that either YX certificate or diploma or BC it's always there that you don't alter anything if your name is and they wrote ol and you think you can just put that you to a you have rendered that certificate invalid and in the approval that we give if you read through is there that you have to develop or build according to what you have in that approval if you've done any alteration there you have rendered that approval invalid in that case now when you extend beyond your plot line you of course render that approval useless and when we come there and that's what the environment is saying that they don't demolish they remove the areas of your encroachment they just remove it or we get there and we remove it peacefully for you remove yes peacefully yes peacefully okay let me let me ask with a bulldo with a bulldozer is peacefully because you may not use uh it might not be possible to use them to remove so you need some tools and that tool happens to be a machine okay however let me ask you let me a however if we have a building that has full approval and everything in there is complied with and uh by our own way has to be removed we pay through compensation for example on right of way if you are doing Road and you have legitimate approval and we get to a place and not of your own error will pay full compensation let me ask you this and we even engage them before that in public interest let me ask you this two difficult questions number one from what you know in terms of phisical planning and Urban Development what is the capacity of human beings that Lego State should be able to contain secondly what's the um percentage of legal states where the infrastructure is illegal illegal illegal that that they the the infrastructure is occupying land in Lagos illegally what's the percentage ah well it be difficult to to give you that uh that's why I say it's a difficult question but the first one um regarding Manpower we have very very competent and capable officer the the slight challenge is uh capacity like I said before we have offices in all the 57 uh LCD areas however um I don't think there are enough and we already we've started no I'm talking about the population that Lego States U can physically plan for yes and conveniently contained we have about between 20 and 22 million NRA now million 20 22 million people now uh what's the average that realistically speaking Lagos should be able to uh to take well um there said the the reward of hard work is more work in Lagos year we are we are condemned to to to do good and you agree with me that um especially this Administration we've been doing a lot in terms of infrastructural development and upliftment however once this is done you have influx of people uh State commissioner just left here there's virtually no boundary or border between OS somebody wakes up in nasar today is coming to Lagos just a matter of to enter the bus I can I mean statistically if you look at it if you have there are about 160 something universities in this country uh let's say at about 3,000 3 * 150 that's 450 let's say total of about 700,000 including po Technic in a year graduate pushed out believe in me not less than 60% will be in Lagos is Lagos capable I'm talking about the land space human habitation how many people should Legos be able to take is Lagos overstretched now in terms of infrastructure that's are questions I'm I'm asking well we we are quite frankly we are getting to that stage now of being overstretched yes we are getting to that stage now because for example if you um take a transportation if you look in the morning from uh um UHA Bridge here down to leito gate virtually you see Bumper to Bumper that is a signal one of the things that we can use of influx of people moving to the island now as it affects um building even from the rat you charge you can also assess that from the ways a tenants bombard landl you can also assess that okay well from the way um applications that have been submitted on a daily basis you can also get that we are getting to that stage now but we have to keep and that's why the new plans that we have now they are changing that's why you can see before you have a house in one acre of land you probably cannot have that one again you have viruses now so we have to continuously respond to that okay all we can say is uh Lego State commissioner for physical planning and Urban Development engineer UA yeah thank you very much thank you very much Ma more grease to your elbow and may the Lord be with you amen thank you very much Sunrise will continue in just a moment stay with us [Music]

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Length: 26min 48sec (1608 seconds)

Published: Sat May 11 2024