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Timber dealers sue govt over planned eviction

By Bertram Nwannekanma
14 April 2016   |   12:22 am
Stakeholders at the Okobaba foreshore in Ebute-Metta, made up of timber dealers, sawyers and towing vessel owners, have filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Lagos over plans by the state government to forcefully relocate...

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Stakeholders at the Okobaba foreshore in Ebute-Metta, made up of timber dealers, sawyers and towing vessel owners, have filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Lagos over plans by the state government to forcefully relocate them to an uncompleted site in Ijede area of Ikorodu, Lagos State.

In the suit, filed through the law firm of Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, the stakeholders are seeking the court’s declaration that the Lagos State government has no authority over any land situate and being within the 100 metres of all inland waterways, such as the Lagos Lagoon, which is under the jurisdiction of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA).

The stakeholders, who said they have been paying their regular dues and permit licences to NIWA for many years now, are contending that the state government is without legal powers to interfere in their possession and occupation of the Okobaba Street Foreshore, to eject them forcefully and transfer the land to developers and foreign investors.

In the suit marked: FHC/L/CS/507/2016, they are seeking a court declaration restraining the defendants from taking over possession of, re-allocating or in any other manner depriving them of the right of way of the Abeokuta Street (Okobaba) Foreshore of the Lagos Lagoon and its shoreline, without threat of ejection, removal, disturbance or dispossession by the defendants.

No date has been fixed for the case.

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