The Lagos State Government on Friday read the riot act to residents and property owners in the state who have built on the Right of Way of various drainage channels in the state to remove such properties immediately or have them removed by agents of the state government.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Drainage and Water Resources, Engr. Joe Igbokwe, the State Government said the several efforts it is making in ensuring free flow of water is being hampered by the activities of several individuals who have built across drainage channels, thus causing flooding.
He cited the specific example of Bayo Osinowo Street near China Town Unit system as one of such flagrant disregard for the state drainage masterplan, stressing that all the structures on that corridor are illegal and obstructing the free flow of water in the China Town Drainage system and must go.
Igbokwe said the property owners in the area have been served with contravention notices by the state government several times, but they have been recalcitrant and have even gone a step further by resorting to self help all in the quest to gain public sympathy.
He described the hiring of a buggy by some of the residents of Bayo Osinowo Street in China Town to redirect the channel and clear the canal in what they term as “self help” amidst media blitz as an exercise in futility, self serving and cosmetics, stating that all the physical structures as presently constructed on that street are on the Right of Way of the China Town alignment, constituting the major impediment to free flow of water from the drains.
The Special Adviser maintained that this warning will serve as a final notice to residents of all such areas where permanent structures have been erected on the Right of Way of various channels and canals to remove all such structures immediately or have them removed by the state.
Igbokwe reiterated the commitment of the present administration to safety of lives and properties of every resident, adding that the government will not fold its arms and allow the activities of a few selfish and lawless individuals to put the lives of millions of law abiding citizens in peril.
He emphasized that the state continues to deploy more men to the various locations in the state where its flood abatement gangs are in operation to compliment the efforts of the main contractor that is saddled with the task of cleaning up all the drainage channels in the state.
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