The senior special assistant to President Bola Tinubu on media and publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has called out the owners of the Landmark Beach in Lagos for having extra structures beyond the limit of the allowed allowance on their property.
The presidential media aide submitted that the impunity with which people do such things in Nigeria without considering the consequences is alarming.
He added that the same Nigerians who engage in such bad behaviours dare not do the same when they travel to other more civilized nations or even nearby places such as Cotonou or Lome.
His submission is against the backdrop of the public uproar, which has greeted steps taken by the federal government to demolish some structures near the Landmark Beach, which are on the right of way of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project.
“Many Nigerians living abroad can be very funny with the way they talk and make posts on social media about happenings in the country. It is really amusing how people who, often,can’t do basic repairs in their houses without government approvals and necessary permits justify bad behaviour at home. These people who won’t dare add any extra external facade to their buildings because of the consequences in their country of abode will just be yapping to feel good. They are the first to tell us how unorganised Nigeria is when it suits them and also the first to support lawlessness. The truth is owners of Landmark won’t do what they did in Lagos in nearby Cotonou or Lome not to talk of ‘the abroad’,” Ajayi wrote on Thursday via his account on X.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has stated that the Group Chief Executive Officer and founder of The Landmark Group, Paul Onwuanibe, has no grounds to claim compensation from the Federal Government following the demolition activities related to the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project.
Naijaonpoint reports that the minister made this statement during a press briefing on Wednesday at the ongoing demolition of properties along the coastline in preparation for the major infrastructure project.
Despite the proximity of these demolitions to Landmark’s properties, Minister Umahi clarified that the structures owned by The Landmark Group were deliberately spared from demolition.
Explaining the government’s position, Umahi emphasized that since the beach is situated within the designated right-of-way, 15 meters from the shoreline, it does not qualify for any claims.