Governor Akinwumi Ambode has made
the menace of land grabbing in Lagos a
thing of the past with the signing of the
Lagos State Properties Protection Law – The governor also signed into law the
Neighbourhood Safety Law Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi
Ambode (middle), signing the Property
Protection and Neighbourhood Safety Agency
Laws flanked by the Speaker, Lagos House of
Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa and
Attorney General & Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem at the Conference Room,
Lagos House, Ikeja, on Monday, August 15,
2016. Lagos state governor, Mr Akinwunmi
Ambode on Monday fulfilled his pledge of
making the menace of land grabbing in Lagos
a thing of the past with the signing of the
Lagos State Properties Protection Law. Governor Ambode also signed the Lagos State
Neighbourhood Safety Corps Law, a move
which is majorly aimed at boosting security
of lives and property in all the Local
Government Areas and Local Council
Development Areas of the State. Speaking at the signing ceremony which was
attended by the Lagos State Speaker, Rt. Hon.
Mudashiru Obasa; the Chief Judge of the State,
Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade and other top
government functionaries, Governor Ambode
said the laws were central to his administration’s focus of safeguarding the
lives of all residents, as well as attracting,
growing investments and improving the ease
of doing business in the State. “In addition to equipping our security
agencies, we have now created a legal
framework to put some form of communal
protection in place to boost and support the
great job the Nigeria Police is presently
doing,” Governor Ambode said. Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi
Ambode (2nd right), with Speaker, Lagos
House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa
(2nd left); Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice
Oluwafunmilayo Atilade (left) and Attorney
General & Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem (right) during the signing of
the Property Protection and Neighbourhood
Safety Agency Laws at the Conference Room,
Lagos House, Ikeja, on Monday, August 15,
2016. The Governor, who explained that the
Neighborhood Safety Corps would assist the
police and other security agencies to maintain
law and order across the communities, added
that the Neighborhood Safety Agency, which
the new law established, would also be charged with the responsibility of registering
all private home security and any other
person employed for private home security
amongst other things. On the Properties Protection Law, Governor
Ambode said the need for the law followed
the fact that one of the issues that
discouraged investors and hindered the ease
of doing business in Lagos in the past had
always been the menace of land grabbing. He recalled that a lot of would-be property
owners encountered untold harassment from
exploitative land grabbers, adding that the
law now marks the end of the road for such
land grabbers. “The Lagos State Properties Protection Law
will give legal backing to the operations of
our law enforcement officers. The main
objective of this Law is to ensure that our
investors, businessmen and the general
populace carry on their legitimate land/ property transactions without any hindrance
or intimidation henceforth.