National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muiz Banire, has alleged that the Lagos State Government is waging war against him.
Banire traced his ordeal to his insistence on the need to observe the rule of law within the APC.
In a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen, yesterday, he accused the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of deploying state powers against him and his family.
Banire alleged that agents of the state’s Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, served a notice of contravention on the residence of his 90-year-old mother, Alhaja Sarat Banire, at No. 24A, Remi Fani Kayode Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, demanding within 24 hours, proof of Planning Permit obtained before the building was erected.
Banire, who is currently in Saudi Arabia for Lesser Hajj, said the contravention notice further threatened demolition of his mother’s two-bedroom bungalow within 48 hours of the notice.
“It behoves me to put the record straight. My siblings and I acquired a lease of the property known as 24A, Remi Fani-Kayode Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, from the Federal Government, to serve as residence for my aged mother. The lease covered the two-bedroom bungalow already on the land together with a Boys’ Quarters. I did not have any reason to rebuild the house or do any further construction as the place was fit for the purpose for which it was acquired on lease.
“I know that since the creation of the lease, my mother has been living in the said two-bedroom bungalow without adding a block to the property, by way of additional construction, development or alteration save for minor renovation like painting.
“The reasons we could not develop the property to make it more befitting is that we are still awaiting federal consent to the lease created in my mother’s favour.
“Surprisingly, on November 14, the contravention notice purportedly served by government requires that a building permit must be produced for an old building, the existence of which predated the lease by which my mother became the occupier of the premises. The property belongs to the Federal Government of Nigeria which granted a lease to my mother and save for minor renovations to make it habitable, no single efforts at construction or reconstruction has been made by any of us,” he said.
The APC legal adviser wondered how his mother would be required to produce a building permit of a property that belongs to her landlord within 24 hours or risk demolition of the building.
if not that the state government wanted to get at him.
“I had earlier said that the Lagos State government, under the governorship of Ambode is out on a vendetta and having failed to get me removed as the national legal adviser of APC, has targeted my supporters for persecution. The more recent is the invasion and sealing of the residence of Funmilayo Tejuoso without a court order and in flagrant disregard to pending proceedings of the state High Court in a suit instituted by Tejuoso’s company and the Lagos State Government,” he said.
He said he was not surprised by the recent development as he had expected it long before now following several threat messages to him because of his outspokenness against flagrant abuse of rule of law in APC.
He said it is unheard of that a tenant of a property shall be required to produce the building permit by which the property leased to him was constructed.
He further asked: “What urgency requires that the occupier of a premises be given just 24 hours to produce a building permit of which he/she could not have been in possession? What urgency requires that the building be demolished within 48 hours of issuing a contravention notice if not vendetta?”
He stated that the minister’s consent to the lease in accordance with the law was still being processed at the office of the minister for power, works and housing in Abuja and that was why the building has not been developed.
“The building is not dilapidated and neither does it constitute danger to any life or property. What exactly brought this building within the context of demolition if not that it is linked to Banire?” he querried.
Banire said no amount of intimidation by the state government would stop him from speaking out against lack of internal democracy in APC.
“I want to sound this note of caution to the Lagos State Government that I am not daunted by these acts of terrorism which it has embarked upon in recent times. My call for internal democracy in APC, prevalence of rule of law and resistance to imposition came out of personal conviction to serve my creator in all ramifications and at every opportunity.
“I have no doubt that this latest Gestapo tactic is in furtherance of the political victimisation and oppression raging against me and my associates.
“I am ready for the sacrifice even if I have to, in the process; sleep on the street of Lagos. Rule of law and institution building remain sacrosanct to me. As far as God continues to protect my life, I will remain resolute on it,” he said.
About his mother’s state, he said: “If God says that my ailing mother at the age of 90 will die in the hands of Governor Ambode, I give God the glory.”
|Sun
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