₦airaland Forum

The Group Managing Director of CFL Group,  Lai Omotola has raised an alarm that the Attorney General of Lagos State, Moyosore Onigbanjo has forged a police document to institute a false criminal charge against him.

Speaking while addressing a group of reporters at the headquarters of his company in Maryland, Lagos on Monday, the real estate mogul alleged that the Attorney General has been making desperate and frantic efforts, in cohort with some corrupt elements in the judiciary to put him in custody for selfish interests.

Omotola said that one of the reasons why he staged the press conference was to draw the attention of His Excellency, Governor Babatunde Sanwoolu of Lagos, noting that he has written  a letter to him on same issue.

According to him, on the  the 8th of June, 2022 a controversial bench warrant was issued against him from the court of Honourable Justice Olatunde Oshodi.

He added that following the development, on  the 10th of June, 2022, his lawyers filed a motion for stay of execution in front of the same judge which still subsists.

Giving the details on how the whole incident started two years ago, Omotola said: "On the 20th of January, 2020 I received a call from one of our security men from our property at 63 Iju road, Agege that officials of Lagos State were at our premises demolishing our property. All efforts to stop them came to no avail.

"The next day, my attention was drawn to a punch newspaper report where the coordinator of Lagos State taskforce on Land grabbing, Mr, Owolabi Arole demiolished the property and have since returned the land to the rightful owner in the person of Mrs. Olatokunbo Williams and that me Lai Omotola is a land grabber.

"Upon the receipt of this report, I spoke to the Attorney General of Lagos State drawing his attention to the report and also informing him how our property has been demolished and that the coordinator of Taskforce on Land grabbing Mr. Arole Owolabi informed me that it was with his consent that the building was demolished and I would like him to call us together in order to resolve the issue. He responded by saying that if he was to call him he (Arole) was going to deny all I have said and that what I have to do is to do a petition against him.

"I did the petition against Mr Arole and
same was delivered to him. Upon receipt of the
petition by the A.G, I was called that a panel has
been set up headed by the Solicitor General Mrs.Titilayo Shitta Bey.

"At the meeting, Mrs Shitta bey
said since two persons were laying ownership on the land and they have purchased from different vendor, then its an issue of Land dispute instead of Land grabbing and that parties should go and seek redress in court since the matter is before the court. She handed over the file to Mr. Adebayo
Haroun for further investigation.

Omotola lamented that after bringing witnesses as required by Mr. Adebayo Haroun, the investigation was completed, adding that  all efforts to get report of the investigation did not yield any result.

He added: "We continued to send letter to get update on the report to the AG. It on record we have written the AG seven times without a response.For 18 months there was no response until 22nd of March, 2022 when I received a notice of arraignment from the office of the DPP at 1.10pm on the same day the arraignment was taking place.

"I instructed my lawyer to go to the court, but on getting there, he discovered that a bench warrant has been issued by Justice Olatunde Oshodi at 11am even before the notice of arraignment was brought to the office. On same day we requested for the processes filed in the court only to discover that the office of the attorney General has colluded with one CSP Akinjide Alabi of Zone 2 police to forged my statement in order to develop a charge against me.

"To prove my case, I subjected
the statement for forensic at Alagbon FCID and the result came out to be forged. My lawyer on the forensic report wrote to the AG but the letter was ignored to buttress our claim of conspiracy.

" I also petitioned the CSP that was used to
perpetrate the forgery to the Inspector General of Police. The IGP ordered a thorough investigation and was discovered the the CSP obtained an unapproved petitioned from a suspect in my own petition by the name Mr. Niyi Odunsi, upon which all other documents were forged. Upon this realization, the office of the IGP wrote a letter to the A.G informing him that all documents were forged and that no police formation carried out any investigation on what generated a charge.

"Still yet the AG continued e to ignore the letter.
On the 8th of June, 2022, my lawyer through an
affidavit brought the attention of the honourable court to the letter of IGP to the AG and instead oft the Judge looking at the substance to the letter hefled up,"  Omotola stated.

He noted that at this  this junction, he wants Honourable Jusatice Oshodi to recuse himself from this matter because he has become an interested party in the matter and therefore, to get Justice in that kind of situation is not possible.

According to him: "How can a Judge issue a bench warrant on the first hearing of a matter, when the suspect has not been served nor is there any evidence of his arrest by police to show that he is on administrative bail.

"Ordinarily, it’s the police that serves suspect with the charge personally, but  because it was known to both the Attorney-General and Justice Olatunde Oshodi that the police was not involved in the persecution, the only way to commence the proceedings is to first issue a bench warrant and then service a
notice of arraignmentt at my office which will
compel me to come. I ask all the judges in
Nigeria that is this the procedure?

He alleged that the plan of both the judge a d the Attorney General is to arraign him, put him in custody and impose strict bail conditions on him so that they would be able to achieve their aim.

"The intention of the judge and the Attorney General us to arraigned me so the judge can slam a strigent bail conditions that I will not be able to meet for 3 months and also sizing my passport and while am in custody move into my property and hand over to Mrs olatokunbo Williamns to hurriedly build on the land. and while in custody I can sign a letter of withdrawal of my petition. Mrs Olatokunbo Williams," he raised alarm.

"To the Attorney General, I would like him to
answer him the following questions:
Was he not the one that told me to write a
petition? .Can office of Land grabber adjudicate on a matter already before the court?
Can you ascribe ownership of land to a
particular person when same is before the
court? .

"Can the AG successfully prosecute a criminal matter when ownership is yet to be decided?.Does Governor’s consent cure any defect in title?Did you not receive letter from the IG office, informing you that there was never any investigation and the police documents with you never came from them?

."Can you prosecute without police investigation? .How can I be a petitioner in front of you and at the same time be charged for the same reason?.Have I not written to you 7 letters on the same matter without a single response from you.

Justifying his claim, Omotola said that the major reason why they are subjecting him to all these harrowing  experienced is because he has demanded for a compensation of N76million for the  demolition of my property

He added: "In order not to get this there is a grand plan to discredit me,embarrass me and put me in custody. I will not be intimidate because am a stakeholder in  this state, am a tax payer and via my company. We  have paid over N200million in government fees in 12 months and this can be verified from the account of Masters reality intl concepts ltd. I

"I deserve respect and not intimidation. I hereby call on the governor’s intervention.

He further stated that out of desperation, the AG brought a charge to magistrate court that his company has not been paying tax. Omotola however described the claim as ridiculous and absurd, saying that  his tax papers from Lagos Internal Revenue Services, LIRS show that he has never defaulted in the payment of tax.

http://infrastructurenews.ng/it-is-difficult-to-get-housing-permit-in-lagos-than-oil-license-under-idris-salako/


Over the years, the principal role of town planning authority is to develop quality urban designs and to ensure even development in all parts of Lagos metropolis.

Essentially, the town planning department is a major catalyst in bringing out the beauty of Lagos. Therefore, they are more like pivotal development partners in every state; most especially, when it has to do with a critical sector like the construction industry. This is so due to the multiplier effects the industry has on the economy, including job creation.

However, lots of developers in Lagos are currently complaining bitterly that they are facing multi facets frustrations under the administration of the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Idris Okanla Salako, citing unwholesome activities and corrupt practices allegedly going on in the department brazenly.

In an interview with our reporter, a top developer who pleaded anonymity alleged that Salako has brazenly turned the critical department of town planning to only revenue making channels, while totally abandoning the due processes and the core objectives of why the critical department was created.

The stakeholder said “Due to the understanding of the sector, under the government of former Governor Babatunde Fashola; the physical planning department was pre-occupied with its core objectives;. It had a friendly outlook and had a robust relationship with all critical partners and developers.

“The relationship with major stakeholders under Ex-Governor Fashola was so solid in such a way that there used to be monthly stakeholders’ meeting and collection of data from developers with a view to ascertaining jobs creation and development.

“Also, under Fashola regime, quality development was the order of the day in the physical planning, and it was emphasized as a core objective. This development mid-wifed Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA and Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority, LASPPPA. These two agencies are saddled with the responsibility of ensuring quality control and uniform planning under Governor Fashola. The purpose of creating them was to speed up the approval processes of building permit.

He added that to ensure efficiency, * the administration ordered the two main agencies to be working on Saturdays. The synergy was so cordial in such a way that both the agencies and the stskeoilders learnt a lot from each other. The sole purpose was to make sure Lagos becomes beautiful and be a model to other states.

“When Fashola left in 2015 and the government of Akinwumi Ambode came on board, the template continued and tried to improving on what he met on ground.

The top stakeholder lanented that under the present governernt of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Salako-led administration has made things go awry in the physical planning department as a result of sharp practices, nepotism and desperation to generate funds by all means.

He said ” Under this administration, the man at the helm of affairs in the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Idris Salako, has made the town planning authority abandon its core purpure of establishment. To the amazement of we stakeholders, Salako has made the department to derail completely by introducing revenue as the core function of the ministry as against the main objectives of quality and development.

According to him, lots of construction players are currently groaning under Salako-led administration because of the high degree of frustrations they are deliberately made to pass through so as to satisfy some selfish interests.

He saidI “In order to be in good books of Governor Sanwo-Olu and to be seen as one with the highest in revenue collection, he placed officers on target, mostly unrealistic targets; so as to be boasting of being one of the highest in revenue commissioner. However, it has been revealed that the idea is a daytime fraud.

“To perpetrate their acts, the module operandi is to ensure that offices are increased and charge discretionary fees Developers are charged high fees. If such developer can’t meet up in paying the fees, Salako would give room to negotiations. He would discount the fees. Even at that, the developer would soon part away with money. Failure to do so may backfire on the developer.

“In order to generate income, the Commissioner would be sealing buildings indiscriminately, requesting for building permits. Even the developers that met up with the requirements were made to undergo series of frustrations by citing all forms of technicalities just to ensure they cough out money illegally,” he added.

The expert also revealed how some workers of the ministry used to invade the sites of developers who failed to “cooperate”.

“Like thugs, some workers would invade the construction sited in a Gestapo style, chased everybody out, and in some cases, arrested and dragged construction workers to court on ridiculous and trumpped-up charges.The purpose of thossy scenes is to instil fears in the minds of players in the construction industry,” he lamented.

He greatly lamented that the key stakeholders in the construction industry in Lagos are currently finding it difficult to breathe under Salako-led team,; which, according to him has priotized mainly on personal income against the key objective of bringing out the beauty of Lagos State as the commercial capital of Nigeria.

He also noted that the absymsal failure of Salako’s is one of the factors responsible for the frequent rate of building collapse in Lagos.

Also speaking with our reporter, a staff of the ministry who does not want name to be mention because of the sensitive nature the matter said that they are told to lure the developers to pay money when the ministry actually know that they are not ready to grant you permit; and that money would never be refunded. He added that this is part of the strategies given to them to meet up with ‘revenue targets’

“This gives credence to reason under his leadership why collapsed buildings, staff low moral, nepotism have become order of the day under the Ministry. Even we staff are groaning, they can’t wait for him to end his tenure. Stakeholders can’t bear the yokes anymore being that despite the 7-day issuance of obtaining permit remains more difficult than collecting oil well permit under the Federal Governmen.

Lamenting further, the staff revealed that Salako would also ensure that third party consultants close to the ministry are used to package the documents of developers, noting that the motive is part of their endemic corrupt practices..

“The people enjoying Salako are the players with the same corrupt mindset who are ready to compromise and grease his pocket. That is one of the reasons why building are collapsing across Lagos because the structures are in variance with the total violation of required architectural designs,” the staff added.

As part of the duties of the media to investigate issues, the Infrastructurenews.ng has begun the audit of all defective buildings as they litter Lagos; and this will come out in our next publication.

We are also calling on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to critically revise and evaluate the matter and get a third party assessment to ensure that allegations of woeful performance would not crop up in his second term.

Over the years, the principal role of town planning authority is to develop quality urban designs and to ensure even development in all parts of Lagos metropolis.

Essentially, the town planning department is a major catalyst in bringing out the beauty of Lagos. Therefore, they are more like pivotal development partners in every state; most especially, when it has to do with a critical sector like the construction industry. This is so due to the multiplier effects the industry has on the economy, including job creation.

However, lots of developers in Lagos are currently complaining bitterly that they are facing multi facets frustrations under the administration of the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Idris Okanla Salako, citing unwholesome activities and corrupt practices allegedly going on in the department brazenly.

In an interview with our reporter, a top developer who pleaded anonymity alleged that Salako has brazenly turned the critical department of town planning to only revenue making channels, while totally abandoning the due processes and the core objectives of why the critical department was created.

The stakeholder said “Due to the understanding of the sector, under the government of former Governor Babatunde Fashola; the physical planning department was pre-occupied with its core objectives;. It had a friendly outlook and had a robust relationship with all critical partners and developers.

“The relationship with major stakeholders under Ex-Governor Fashola was so solid in such a way that there used to be monthly stakeholders’ meeting and collection of data from developers with a view to ascertaining jobs creation and development.

“Also, under Fashola regime, quality development was the order of the day in the physical planning, and it was emphasized as a core objective. This development mid-wifed Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA and Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority, LASPPPA. These two agencies are saddled with the responsibility of ensuring quality control and uniform planning under Governor Fashola. The purpose of creating them was to speed up the approval processes of building permit.

He added that to ensure efficiency, * the administration ordered the two main agencies to be working on Saturdays. The synergy was so cordial in such a way that both the agencies and the stskeoilders learnt a lot from each other. The sole purpose was to make sure Lagos becomes beautiful and be a model to other states.

“When Fashola left in 2015 and the government of Akinwumi Ambode came on board, the template continued and tried to improving on what he met on ground.

The top stakeholder lanented that under the present governernt of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Salako-led administration has made things go awry in the physical planning department as a result of sharp practices, nepotism and desperation to generate funds by all means.

He said ” Under this administration, the man at the helm of affairs in the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Idris Salako, has made the town planning authority abandon its core purpure of establishment. To the amazement of we stakeholders, Salako has made the department to derail completely by introducing revenue as the core function of the ministry as against the main objectives of quality and development.

According to him, lots of construction players are currently groaning under Salako-led administration because of the high degree of frustrations they are deliberately made to pass through so as to satisfy some selfish interests.

He saidI “In order to be in good books of Governor Sanwo-Olu and to be seen as one with the highest in revenue collection, he placed officers on target, mostly unrealistic targets; so as to be boasting of being one of the highest in revenue commissioner. However, it has been revealed that the idea is a daytime fraud.

“To perpetrate their acts, the module operandi is to ensure that offices are increased and charge discretionary fees Developers are charged high fees. If such developer can’t meet up in paying the fees, Salako would give room to negotiations. He would discount the fees. Even at that, the developer would soon part away with money. Failure to do so may backfire on the developer.

“In order to generate income, the Commissioner would be sealing buildings indiscriminately, requesting for building permits. Even the developers that met up with the requirements were made to undergo series of frustrations by citing all forms of technicalities just to ensure they cough out money illegally,” he added.

The expert also revealed how some workers of the ministry used to invade the sites of developers who failed to “cooperate”.

“Like thugs, some workers would invade the construction sited in a Gestapo style, chased everybody out, and in some cases, arrested and dragged construction workers to court on ridiculous and trumpped-up charges.The purpose of thossy scenes is to instil fears in the minds of players in the construction industry,” he lamented.

He greatly lamented that the key stakeholders in the construction industry in Lagos are currently finding it difficult to breathe under Salako-led team,; which, according to him has priotized mainly on personal income against the key objective of bringing out the beauty of Lagos State as the commercial capital of Nigeria.

He also noted that the absymsal failure of Salako’s is one of the factors responsible for the frequent rate of building collapse in Lagos.

Also speaking with our reporter, a staff of the ministry who does not want name to be mention because of the sensitive nature the matter said that they are told to lure the developers to pay money when the ministry actually know that they are not ready to grant you permit; and that money would never be refunded. He added that this is part of the strategies given to them to meet up with ‘revenue targets’

“This gives credence to reason under his leadership why collapsed buildings, staff low moral, nepotism have become order of the day under the Ministry. Even we staff are groaning, they can’t wait for him to end his tenure. Stakeholders can’t bear the yokes anymore being that despite the 7-day issuance of obtaining permit remains more difficult than collecting oil well permit under the Federal Governmen.

Lamenting further, the staff revealed that Salako would also ensure that third party consultants close to the ministry are used to package the documents of developers, noting that the motive is part of their endemic corrupt practices..

“The people enjoying Salako are the players with the same corrupt mindset who are ready to compromise and grease his pocket. That is one of the reasons why building are collapsing across Lagos because the structures are in variance with the total violation of required architectural designs,” the staff added.

As part of the duties of the media to investigate issues, the Infrastructurenews.ng has begun the audit of all defective buildings as they litter Lagos; and this will come out in our next publication.

We are also calling on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to critically revise and evaluate the matter and get a third party assessment to ensure that allegations of woeful performance would not crop up in his second term.