13 Houses Near Airport Demolished In Ajao Estate Lagos

About 13 homes close to Lagos Airport have been taken down by the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LSBCA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

Before the houses were demolished, Gbolahan Oki, the head of LSBCA, spoke at a news conference in Ikeja. He said most people who owned property near the airport did not have the right paperwork from important agencies.

Oki explained that since 2016, the agency has given four different demolition warnings to the people living in the affected areas.

“People who own property in Ajao Estate and Shasha near the airport don’t have the right building approval, which is a basic need. They also don’t have planning permits. Plus, they are building on a pipeline, which could lead to fires,” Oki said.

“We gave four notices to the people living in these houses to show us their documents. Some showed us approval, but it turned out to be fake. Others showed us different papers, and then we gave them the required permits to move on.

“Both FAAN and LASBCA have been warning these property owners since 2016, and we gave them more than two months to move away. Sadly, some of them even hid the demolition marks on their houses with paint. Today, we’re going to demolish about 13 houses.”

Hycienth Ngwu, who is in charge of business development for FAAN, talked about the issue, too. He said FAAN owns the land, but people started living there illegally in 2015.

“I want to be clear that this land belongs to FAAN, and it was meant for building an airport in Lagos, which is the MM2. In 2015, we saw people moving onto the land in the Ajao area. The rule says that no buildings should be close to the airport’s fence, but we see that this rule is being broken today,” Ngwu said.