Oritsejafor sues Lagos govt over church property, demolition Wednesday, 29 January 2014 21:20 Written by Joseph Onyekwere Category: National Hits: 12 Print Email THE Word of Life Bible Church (WLBC) has filed an action at the Lagos High Court, Igbosere, seeking an order halting the demolition of structures at its headquarters on Plot 21E, Abdulraman Okene Close, Victoria Island Annex, Lagos and praying the court to declare the state government’s action illegal. This comes as the General Overseer of WLBC and President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsajefor, yesterday appealed to Governor Babatunde Fashola to respect the rule of law and halt the demolition of structures in his church. Joined as defendants in the suit are the Lagos State Government, its governor, attorney general, Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Lagos Building Control Agency and Lagos Physical Planning Permit Authority. They are also praying for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their agents, servants, officers, privies or howsoever from demolishing, destroying, dispossessing or forcibly ejecting the claimant from, or continuing to take steps or in any other manner engaging in any activity detrimental or inimical or contrary to the rights of ownership or possession of the claimant in respect of the land registered No.34 on page 34 in Volume 2081 of the Register of Deed, kept at the Lagos State Land Registry. They are equally asking for N90 million penalty, of which N20 million serves as cost of the action. At a press conference held yesterday on his behalf by the resident pastor in Lagos, Segun Braimoh, the cleric asked the Lagos State Government to allow them reap the maximum benefit of the land they bought legitimately, stating: “Lagos State Government should grant our church all necessary approvals as has been done for others.” He explained: “We bought the property over 10 years ago and perfected the titles on April 30, 2003. Our construction work was stalled since 2005 because Land Bureau would not issue us clearance letter to perfect our building plan approval despite that we have submitted all relevant documents and paid all statutory fees for building approval. “We have sought audience with the authorities, including the past and present government of Lagos as to why the clearance letter and approval we sought were being denied since 2005, (but) no explanation was given to us. The current governor requested the physical planning department to look into our complaint following high-level intervention via our letter of 27/6/2010.” According to him, “the Department of Physical Planning wrote to inform us on 27/7/2010 that all efforts to trace the file for application No. IV04/DO/208/68A in the office had been unsuccessful. We were then enjoined to resubmit all documents to enable the processing of our application. “We have since reproduced all the documents as directed, except the clearance letter from the Land Bureau. We reapplied for the renewal of the clearance letter issued to us by the Land Bureau on October 15, 2010 – it is one of the documents specified by physical planning to enable them process and grant approval of our building plan. “The Land Bureau, in its wisdom, has refused to renew the clearance letter. It is pertinent to note that it is renewal we need now as the bureau had issued one clearance in 2010 after all due diligence.” According to Oritsejafor, following another appeal letter to Governor Fashola dated February 19, 2013, they were asked to liaise with Land Bureau for the clearance letter, but the bureau has failed to issue the letter even after complying with all the processes. However, “on January 20, 2014, we got a notice and the next day, January 21, a demolition notice. On January 23, we saw the Lagos State Building Agency Enforcement Department with a team of armed policemen, bulldozers and caterpillar pull down our gate and part of our fence.”
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 06:02:10 +0000
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