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Breakdown of law and order looms in the Lekki area of Lagos following the resolve of homeowners and allottees of Alma Beach Estate to the police and suspected local thugs reportedly procured by suspected trespassers to demolish their houses and forcefully take over their property.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations), Mohammed Ali, was said to have deployed the armed policemen to provide security cover for the land grabbers causing trouble in the area in breach of the directive by the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
The crisis started in 2017 when a firm, NICON Trustees began to lay claim to owning 150 plots of land in Alma Beach estate without any authentic survey or registered title to back up its claim, after its claims were roundly rejected by the Lagos state government through the state Surveyor General, Mr Olutomi Sangowawa in a memo to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, Zone 2 with ref: AR: 3000/ZN/MTU/TMU/TM4/VOL.2/116 and dated July 3, 2020.
While the state government affirmed the estate allotees did not only have their titles consented to by the government but equally registered as confirmed by their survey plan No. LA/0807/2007/05, it said that of NICON Trustees marked SJA/301/076K/2003/LA does not exist in the state records.
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Prior to the intervention of the state government, the authentic homeowners and allottees in the estate had also secured two court orders restraining NICON Trustees from tresspassing in the estate.
This formed the basis of a letter from the Attorney General of the Federation dated August 20, 2020 to the Inspector General of Police to ensure policemen were not deployed to the estate for illegal activities and in contravention of two court orders issued by the Federal High Court on October 24, 2019 and January 23, 2020.
Lawyer to the estate homeowners and allottees, Dr. Muiz Banire, SAN has however expressed shock over the defiant activities of the policemen who continue to provide cover for armed thugs to destroy peoples houses and allowing illegal developers to build day and night. “This is the type of illegalities that recently led to a nationwide uprising against the police. In this case, if the rightful allottees decide to defend themselves against the invasion and destruction of their homes and properties, and there is a breakdown of law and order in Alma Beach, Lekki, any police officer responsible for the deployment of policemen to provide cover for hoodlums terrorising the allottees of Alma Beach estate should be held responsible and accountable coming against the backdrop of recent unsavoury incidents in Lekki”, Banire said while reacting to the development.
When contacted, Lagos state Police command spokesman, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a WhatsApp message, promised to “find out and get back” but did not do so at press time.
