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  • Lagos registers 6, 083 private schools, warns defaulters

    Lagos registers 6, 083 private schools, warns defaulters

    About 6,083 private schools have been captured in the ongoing Private School registration in Lagos State.

    However, some well established schools are yet to be captured.

    The state government had began a fresh registration exercise for private schools across the six education districts on July 28 to create a central database of Private schools’ operators.

    Statistics from the exercise showed that of the schools captured in five of the six educational districts, a substantial number of the schools were still seeking government approval.

    Addressing journalists shortly after touring schools in District 1, Agege, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. Adesina Odeyemi, lamented the low turnout of schools for the exercise before the deadline on Wednesday, saying “more school would have been captured if they had turned up earlier.”

    “After inspection, I discovered that the response had been very low since the exercise started. But with one day left, I discovered was that the turnout has started to improving.”

    Odeyemi disclosed that after the exercise about 11, 000 schools are expected to be capture in the exercise.

    A breakdown of the schools captured so far in the exercise showed that 1,587 private schools were registered in District I; 1,089 in District II; 676 in III; 431 in IV; 1038 in V; and 623 in District VI.

    Odeyemi however warned that, “At the end of this exercise, if any of the schools failed to register that implies the school owner deliberately wants to hide and does not want the government to monitor the activities in his school.  And the government will have no option than to shut the school because the registration is free.”

    He reiterated that the registration was for planning purpose, saying, “We want to have every detail of our pupils in order to monitor them for development purpose. The future of the state lies in the hands of these students. And because of this, ensuring that they get the best education is the responsibility of the state government.

    Earlier, the Director of Education Management Information System in Education District II, Mrs. Tayelolu Showemimo, had expressed concerns that that the “Big Schools” were not turning up to register.

    She noted that the district targeted about 2,000 schools considering number of schools springing up daily but only got 676.

     

  • Lagos Abattoir, purveyor of disease and death

    If you are fed up with life, wish to become diseased and die young or early, come and live near the Lagos Abattoir. Located on the Old Abeokuta Road in Agege Area of Lagos, it was meant to be a central slaughter house for cows and other animals in Lagos. When these animals are killed under hygienic conditions, their meat is transported in special vans to different beef markets in Lagos. The waste products of this operation would, thereafter, be discarded, also as done world-wide hygienically, as in modern abattoir.

    In time, this abattoir became one of the biggest job providers and gold mines of business in an otherwise squalid Lagos suburb where the average school leaver once aspired to become no more than a sub-urban bus conductor. But somewhere along the line, the dreams of the founding fathers derailed. Modern machines are no longer used for the operations. It is either that the operators found them culturally unsuitable for their work, or too sophisticated for them to handle, or that, characteristic of the Nigerian business psyche, these machines were not well maintained, broke down, were abandoned, and the operators resorted to self-help at their own level of technology. I wish to speak about only one of the operations, and to wonder why the government of Lagos State is pretending that the crudeness of this operation is not endangering the health of people who live near the abattoir.

    When I raised the later point at a small discussion group which was trying to find a solution to the health hazards that the abattoir was creating, someone with a legal mind told us about volenti non fit injuria. In Latin, this means it is impossible for a sensible person to injure himself or herself. It is a legal platform for a journalist sued for libel or defamation to defend himself or herself. If the person complaining before a judge about a publication voluntarily provided the information which led to his or her injury, what moral rights has he or she, indeed, to successfully claim damage(s). ? So, as this gentleman reasoned, if the abattoir is providing the government of Lagos State fabulous tax income every day, and some top officials of the Government have interest in the abattoir, wouldn’t it be better to look the other way and let sleeping dogs lie?

    WHAT I am about to say should infuriate or annoy millions of people in Lagos and other parts of the country, and save their lives. It is all about Ponmo (Yoruba) or cow skin.

     

    Ponmo (Cow Skin)

    As a boy, I looked forward to the day my step mother would cook ponmo in Egusi (melon) soup. I do not remember now if the white ponmo or the brown was the more exciting to the palate. It was difficult then to tell the difference between them. Even now, I can only guess that the white is a purveyor of white fat cells, which do not burn easily, increasing the load of body fat, and the brown, the more thermogenic, which, in the body, burns easily on its own irrespective of exercise or any other physical activity. As a young man, I learned that the consumption of animal skin was dangerous to health. In Europe, India and the United States, where health awareness is more robust than in Africa, the skin of fish or chicken is removed and discarded before the fish is eaten. If fish skin, as flimsy as it is, can be considered dangerous to health, how more dangerous would animal skin be, thick as it is, sometimes thicker than the thumb? Some of my fears are conformed by Dr. Isuwa Adamu, director-general, Nigerian Institute of Leather Science and Technology (NILEST), who is quoted in www.vanguardngr.com as saying “animal skin can be suffused with disease-causing germs, chemicals and other toxic substances.” The thought that many animals have skin diseases and the fact that toxic drugs used to cure them have not expired their life spans before these animals are slaughtered are enough to deter anyone from eating it. But more worrying should be the way ponmo is cured in Nigeria before it is sold in the market. At the Lagos Abattoir, animal skin is burned in a heap of tyres set ablaze, presumably with kerosene or petrol or diesel. The bonfire yields a thick toxin smoke which, in billows, spread out to various neighbourhoods, poisoning people who inhale the air. Tyre bonfire are a menace in the United States. The experience of Americans should be a warning to us. We do not have to invent the wheel in this regard, as they say. We are helped in this in http://lexbirahviewsoftheworld.com, we are advised in the article KILLER BLACK SMOKE, WHAT BURNNG TYRES REALLY DOES:

    “I have heard enough of this tyre burning now and so too has  every-ore I have spoken to. Black plumes of smoke cover the skyline day and night trying in vain to scare people away. But it’s not the tyres that scares me more the after effects of all the toxic fumes we are inhaling. Do you know they are over two gallons (seven litres) of petroleum and oil in one tyre alone, numerous chemicals, including chlorine, styrene, butadiene and more than 20 different heavy metals. I was stunned to learn this. Styrene and Butadiene are both suspected of causing cancer, the extender contain carcinogenic Benzene, derivations and the metals like lead, chromium, cadmium and mercury don’t even burn away, they just get released into the atmosphere as fragrant ash. Tyre smoke contains high levels of toxic heavy metals, 407 percent more Chromium, 372 percent more lead, and 1448 percent more Arsenic, than coal, and the Carbon black is a fine particulate matter produced by incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, now that’s scary.  “So, having learned that mush, I then continued with my research and found that Dioxin, which are by-product of Chlorine, once released into the air, can travel long distances before settling onto the soil, water, plants and animals, miles away from the fore source sometimes, where it remains and becomes absorbed. “Dioxin does not break down. It just accumulates in the fatty tissues of animals (and humans) that consume the contaminated vegetation, meat, chickens and decay products. In humans, these dioxins can lead to reproductive impairment, development injuries and increase and an increase in the risk of diabetes. The Canadian Contario Ministry of Environment and Energy (MOEE) carried out a survey in 1991 on a tyre fire site and noted that contamination was seen in vegetables growing 100 to 200 metres away from the site and, furthermore, it remained in the soil 200 days after the fire. ‘Now the heavy metals that I spoke about earlier, and 20 different ones do not break down either, and so, they, too, build up into an alarming concentration level within the soils. They reduce crop yield and eventually destroy lots of agricultural land. The side effects to human exposure to these toxins in our food chain can lead to serious health conditions. Lead poisoning destroys human nervous systems, can cause retardation, learning difficulties, bone narrow deficiencies and stunned growth in children. Zinc can cause birth defects, Chromium and Arsenic cause cancer. When the fire is burning, we expect the smoke plume to contain hazardous substance, not did you know that, even when the fire is cooling down, it still releases other poisons and the Benzene produced in this process, once inhaled, ingested or touched will lead to symptoms such a dizziness, euphoria, giddiness, headache, nausea, weakness, drowsiness, respiratory irritation, pulmonary edema, pneumonia and skin, eyes and mucous membrane irritation. Smells like sulphur occur when tyres are being burned. But it is the odourless gas, Carbon monoxide that worries me the most. When this is unknowingly inhaled, it interfere with the transfer of Oxygen in human tissues and leads to CO (Carbone Monoxide).  This can be extremely dangerous and sufferers experience nausea and dizziness, but if not realised quickly enough people collapse into Coma and then die.

    Now if one burnt tyre contains seven litres of petroleum and untold amount of toxins, how much is released into our atmosphere every time someone decides he wants to set off a road block with a tyre fire of, maybe, 10 tyres or more in one go? What becomes airborne after rioters have thrown hundreds of petrol bombs at the police or set fires to gas cylinders? The website http://lexbirchviewoftheworld.com has more information to give us, which makes robust our understanding of what the Lagos Abattoir is doing to our health. Now, many youngmen and women who go to enjoy themselves at their favourite joints where they “chill” out eat lots of ponmo which they wash down with their favourite drinks. Believing that they are civilised people eating civilised food, they do not know that their ponmo is poisoned by tyre fire smoke.  Dr. N.W. Walker speaks of such people in a cell (Tissue) salt therapy which he wrote about in a healthy and damaged colon chart when he says:

    “For the guidance, benefits and use by colon irrigation and lavage establishment operators, and for the education of the layman. Civilized life means an artificial life; civilized people, living in a civilized manner and eating civilized foods, cannot, in every nature of things, have truly HEALTHY COLON. Health and sickness have their roots in the COLON.

    In www.lesspollution.org/learn.html, we learn of 15 good reasons why tyre fire is dangerous to health. It says the pollutants place children especially at risk, as small particles settle in the lungs. When breast milk is contaminated by them, the poisons are transferred to breast-feeding babies. Even fetuses are not spared. The elderly and asthmatics come under fire. So are people with lowered immunity. Heart problems may escalate.

    Now, I speak through the experiences of some families who live in the catchment area of the Lagos Abattoir tyre fire smoke. Around this abattoir are beautiful housing estates such as Millennium Estate, Oke Oba GRA scheme 1, Maplewood Estate, Sunshine Estate, Awoniyi Estate, Labak Estate and others. Many estate families are “dead” asleep when the tyre-burning begins at about 3am. Some members of the family are woken up from deep sleep, choking or coughing. All the bedrooms are infiltrated. The air is rotten, smelly. Electric fans may help a little. Air conditioners help out. Some come out of their flats for fresh air but discover they fare no better. I know of someone who is woken from sleep and finds his room so darkened that he can hardly see the electric lamps in the ceiling. What of people who smell the pollution in their kitchens? How will they cook without these particles falling on their food? Some people go out of their homes in the mornings but return at about 9pm or 10pm to find the air thickened again with tyre fire smoke. Apparently Ponmo sellers at the Lagos Abattoir cure the cow skin with tyre fire about two or three times a day, the premium time being in the night. My friend, George Uberg, a health-conscious fellow who lives somewhere on Iju Road, says it is a “terrible experience”. I advised him to wear a nose guard, day and night, take Orange peel powder to detoxify regularly.

    So does Diatom.

    So does Cilantro.

    So does Chlorella

    Which chelate heavy metals and other toxins out of the blood. Where breathing is affected, orange Peel powder taken with water, juices or meals help. Someone told me of a recipe for kidney cleanse the other day. It is a vegetables the Yoruba call Efo ebolo. When I searched for the popular English name, what I got was Yoruban bilogi. It is macerated and boiling water is poured over it in a container. When the infusion is cool enough to drink, it is served and taken, says this fellow who calls himself Bush Sense or Bush Doctor. This recipe complement our regular kidney cleansers and tonics such as Bell’s Kidney  Cleanse and function Tea, Nettle, Yarrow, Water melon seed tea, Kidney Rescue, Dandelon e.t.c.

    Blood cleansers are indispensable. So are nerve building tonics. The liver should not be forgotten. Burdock root should be added to a compendium of herbs which should include Milk Thistle and Liver Balance among others. If I find myself menaced by the Lagos Abattoir, I would design a regimen for the night hours which would place antioxidants on guard in my system day and night. Meanwhile, why have both the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) not come to the rescue of the neighbourhoods of this abattoir since many of the residents do not even know the danger in which they live. LASEPA and FEPA appear to be slow organisations. In the 1980s, when I was Editor of the Guardian, The Science Editor, Mr. Seun Ogunseitan, who discovered the KOKO toxic waste dump, wrote an article saying that underground water in Ijesha area of Lagos was polluted by heavy metals to the tune of more than 3,000% above World Health Organisation (WHO) safety levels. More frightening was his suggestion that no Nigeria water works systems had a device to remove heavy metals from drinking water. In other words, people who live in Ijeshatedo area of Lagos continue to drink heavy metals-polluted water with the risk of developing cancer and other terrible degenerative diseases. Last week, however, that is about 30 years after, LASEPA announced publicly that it had tested underground water in wells in 20 Local Government Area of Lagos State and found all heavily polluted with heavy metals. That means that, if there is still no device to remove heavy metals from water (boiling does not do it, it only worsens it by concentrating them),  it would mean that all the “pure” water we drink in Lagos, and all the bottled water too, have heavy metals inside them. These is frightening, especially as there may be a correlation between these sources of drinking water and a massive growth in the rate of cancer in Lagos State. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode should act immediately. Formal Governor Babatunde Fashola wanted to relocate the abattoir from Agege but he could not before he vacated power to Ambode. Nevertheless, he tried to sanitise the operation and he extracted land from the abattoir area for a beautiful housing estate which the government may be unable to sell because of the menace of the abattoir.

  • Housing deficit: Lagos plans 187,000 houses yearly

    After identifying a shortfall of 2.5 million housing bunits in the state, the Lagos State Government is planning, in the next five years, to build a minimum of 187,000 housing units yearly.

    The Commissioner for Housing, Gbolahan Lawal, made this known during a courtesy visit to the office of the Acting Deputy British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Ahmed Bashir.

    According to Lawal, the state government will formulate policies that will not only quicken the process to achieve this, but which will also make it successful.

    “Governor Akinwumi Ambode has formulated people-oriented policies that will ensure the supply of 187,000 housing units yearly to address the state’s 2.5 million housing deficit over the next five years,” he said, adding that the Housing Ministry would model its affordable housing after the British social housing programme.

    The Commissioner disclosed that the state intends to explore the vertical style of building in order to make housing units available in the employment centres, especially for the lower and middle income earners, and address the shortage of skilled workers in the construction sector.

    “We also plan to address the dearth of skilled workers in the building industry such as masons, carpenters, steel fabricators, plumbers, electricians, painter, joiners, tillers among others, through the Master Craftsman Project,” he said.

    The Master Craftsman Project, he said, is aimed at encouraging the younger generation to embrace skills in construction, considering that the older artisans were gradually ageing without younger ones being trained to replace them.

    Bashir said the United Kingdom also had passion for training and was ready to assist the ministry in providing same for craftsmen in the state. He also called for more investment in housing for short stay in the state, especially for businessmen and tourists.

    “The Lagos State Government should make adequate provision for the people to come to Lagos and the country in general and stay briefly. This will guarantee their safety on their short stay in the country,” he said.

  • Why other aspirants should step down for George, by Lagos PDP stakeholders

    Why other aspirants should step down for George, by Lagos PDP stakeholders

    • Southwest Reconciliation Committee to meet aggrieved chieftains

    Efforts to unite the Southwest Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ahead of the proposed national convention, has kicked off as the members of the Reconciliation Committee resolved to meet with aggrieved chieftains to resolve the zoning crisis.

    The Reconciliation Committee, party sources disclosed, is expected to meet with four aggrieved blocs in the zone between now and next week to harmonise positions on the zoning of the national chairmanship.

    The aggrieved blocs are Senator Kashamu Buruji and his camp, the factional zonal leadership, led by Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe, aggrieved national chairmanship aspirants and factional executives from Ekiti, Ondo, Osun and Ogun states.

    Members of the Reconciliation Committee include Chief Yekini Adeojo, Senator Teslim Folarin, Senator Kofo Bucknor, Chief Ebenezer Babatope Chief Shuaib Oyedokun, Alhaja Salmont Badru, Elder Wole Oyelese and Dr. Eddy Olafeso.

    The zoning crisis has escalated in the Southwest, following the decision of the zonal leadership to zone the position to Ogun and Lagos states. The two PDP governors; Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State and his Ekiti State counterpart, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, jointly presided over the meeting where the decision was taken, following the decision of the Ahmed Makarfi-led National caretakr Committee to zone the slot to the Southwest.

    There are five national chairmanship aspirants from the zone. Two of them, Chief Bode George and Mr. Jimi Agbaje, are from Lagos. Otunba Gbenga Daniel is from Ogun State. But, the other two aspirants who are not favoured by the “zoning within zoning;” Prof. Taoheed Adedoja from Oyo State and Prof. Tunde Adeniran from Ekiti State, have kicked against their exclusion.

    Some party leaders from Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states have also rejected the new arrangement, saying that it was in bad faith. At the ratification meeting held in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Monday, factional chairmen from the three states stormed out, decrying what they described as injustice.

    A source said: “The Reconciliation Committee has identified four aggrieved blocs. Between now nd next week, the members will traverse the length and breath of the zone to pacify aggrieved members. Some people left the Akure meeting in annoyance. They must be pacified. The purpose is to ensure that we put our house together, ahead of the Port Harcourt convention.”

    The reconciliation notwithstanding, the aspirants have intensified their campaigns in the zone. Yesterday, Lagos State PDP Stakeholders Forum reiterated its support for the chairmanship ambition of Chief Bode George, urging other contestants, including Prof. Tunde Adeniran, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja and Mr. Jimi Agbaje, to step down for him.

    Rising from a meeting in Lagos, prominent party leaders alleged that Southeast and Southsouth governors were trying to impose Agbaje, who was sponsored for last year’s governorship election by George and other leaders.

    The chieftains described the pharmacist-turned politician as a new comer who may not be able to reconcile party members at this critical stage when the party is torn apart by leadership crisis.

    Former Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Hon. Philip Aigboji, who spoke on their behalf, reiterated that George has been endorsed as a consensus candidate, even before he was endorsed by the Southwest PDP leadership.

    He said George, who had served as national vice chairman, national deputy chairman and presidential campaign coordinator, is more qualified than a new comer who lacks experience in party management.

    Aigboji added: “We have absolute confidence in Chief Olabode George. We do not need a non-starter to lead our party. There are some aspirants claiming to be in the race after the party has zoned the slot toOgun and Lagos states. We will not tolerate indiscipline and disloyalty in the PDP.”

    The former commissioner complained about the antics of elements, who he described as extraneous forces working against the interest of the Southwest, advising them to desist from dividing the zone.

    He recalled that the Southwest PDP had been robbed of the Speakership of the House of Representatives in the past, owing to the divisive tendencies of internal and external forces militating against the unity and interest of the region.

    Aigboji added: “The proper thing is that other aspirants-Prof. Adeniran, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, Raymond Dokpesi and Uche Secondus should step down. We all know who the cap fits. Justice and fairness demand that the Southwest should be allow to pick its preferred choice. We are passing theougj a phase now. Our party will come out stronger.”

  • FG bans PTAs from collecting levies in Unity colleges

    FG bans PTAs from collecting levies in Unity colleges

    The Federal Government has banned the collection of development levies by Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) in the 104 unity colleges across the country, the Federal Ministry of Education says.

    The ministry in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday said the ban, aimed at alleviating the sufferings of parents, would take effect immediately.

    The statement was signed by Mr Bem Goong, Deputy Director, Press, in the ministry.

    “No PTA of any unity college is allowed to initiate any development project in any of the unity colleges without the express or written authorisation of the Federal Ministry of Education.

    “The new measures are aimed at arresting the shocking trend where development levies imposed on parents by PTAs are becoming higher than the school fees charged by government which established the unity schools,’’ the ministry said.

    The ministry said that the Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu, had noted excessive PTA levies in Kings College, Lagos, and Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba, Lagos.

    It said that in the two schools, fees charged for JSS1 in the first term was N69, 400 while the PTA collection was N70, 000 at Kings and N74, 000 at Yaba.

    “This brings the total paid by parents in these two schools to N139, 400 and N143, 400 respectively.

    “With the reduction on development levies and ban on charges for new projects as well as pegging of the development levy to a maximum of N5, 000, parents of JSS1 in these two schools will now pay N88, 000.

    “I acknowledge the complementary roles played by parents and the support provided by the PTA to the colleges but I will not allow the PTAs to constitute themselves into a government within a government at the level of unity schools and at the expense of parents,’’ the ministry quoted Adamu as saying.

    It said that Adamu expressed concern that PTAs in unity colleges had formed themselves into national associations and said that running additional organisations, such as National Parents and Teachers Association of Federal Government Colleges (NAPTAFEGC), increased the burden on parents.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that NAPTAFEGC recently rejected an alleged 300 per cent increase in school fees of unity schools.

    Dr Gabriel Nnaji, National President of NAPTAFEGC, had told newsmen that the alleged increase from N20, 000 to N75, 000, was unacceptable to parents.

    He said that an average parent with more than a child in unity schools would not be able to afford the cost.

    However, Adamu on Tuesday denied knowledge of the increment in fees.

  • Lagos to seize properties used by kidnappers

    Lagos to seize properties used by kidnappers

    THE Lagos State Government yesterday warned that it will not hesitate to confiscate houses and hotels used as hideouts for kidnapping and other criminal activities.

    Commissioner of Police Mr. Fatai Owoseni, who read the riot act while briefing reporters after the State Security Council meeting presided over by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, said the government was poised to eradicate the menace of kidnapping and militancy.

    He said: “The take away for today after the Security Council Meeting is for us to look at all the strategies that we have been employing in tackling the security challenges that we had in the state and to further strategise with the view to sustaining those measures that would put all the criminal elements in check.

    “The Security Council has come out to let our people know emphatically that the state is more poised at tackling all the criminal challenges and making sure that all the criminal elements that are going about will not be allowed any free reign; they will not be given freedom of space to practice any of their criminal acts.

    “There is no hiding place for criminal elements again and as we get them, they would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

    “In addition to that, the Council resolved that any structure or any places of hiding that criminal elements are using, the state will not hesitate, in the interest of the public, to take over those safe havens, structures or houses,” he said.

    Owoseni warned commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as Okada operating on restricted routes, to obey the state’s traffic laws, saying enforcement of the laws is still ongoing.

    Owoseni advised criminal elements to turn a new leaf and get themselves meaningfully engaged.

     

     

  • Stay away from Lagos, Akiolu warns vandals, kidnappers

    Stay away from Lagos, Akiolu warns vandals, kidnappers

    •Ambode: we’ll not tolerate such sacrilege again

    •Lagos to confiscate buildings, hotels used for kidnapping

    Lagos monarch Oba Riliwanu Aremu Akiolu yesterday warned vandals and kidnappers to stay away from the state, saying that the security apparatus has been fortified to wage war against every form of criminality.

    Akiolu spoke when he led members of the Lagos State Council of Obas and Chiefs to the Lagos House, Ikeja, on a “Thank you” visit to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

    He said: “It is in their (hoodlums) interest to desist and look for other legal ventures to make ends meets. The mere fact that the economy appears not okay does not mean that you resort to criminality. They should stop, not just kidnapping, but any form of criminality. No religion accepts such. Everybody is at alert now, we are on our toes now and with the encouragement given by the Chief of Naval Staff, the National Security Adviser and the Inspector-General of Police, they will be chased to anywhere they are,” he said.

    He enjoined members of the council to rise to their responsibilities and take the business of security within their communities seriously.

    He said the incident which led to the kidnap of the Oniba of Iba, Oba Goriola Oseni, on July 16, was a wake-up call to all, noting that the business of protecting lives and property should not be left to the security agencies alone.

    Akiolu said: “Honestly, as I told my brother Obas, all of us will have to go back and rearrange our security architecture. All hands must be on deck, everyone must assist the government. That’s why in my palace, people accuse me of being too security conscious, but I told them that well, maybe because I was a policeman, but it’s God that is the ultimate security of our lives.

    “It is very necessary. We are happy because the governor did very well. All the security agencies did all that they could do but we still have to be at alert. Everybody must be prepared. We are not going to take things for granted now.”

    He lauded the governor’s and the security agencies’ efforts in rescuing the Iba monarch.

    Responding, Ambode said the state government deployed its security intelligence to unravel the circumstances surrounding the monarch’s kidnap.

    The governor said: ‘’At the initial stage, when the Oba was kidnapped, it appeared as if government was not doing anything. That was actually not the case. It was not just a sacrilege in Yorubaland, but the traditional institution was indeed desecrated. So, we needed to dig into what really happened to reach a logical conclusion.”

    Ambode assured the monarchs that such incident would never occur in the state again.

    “We will now pay greater attention collectively to the security of our traditional rulers. We need to increase security especially for those rulers in the riverine areas. Whatever it is that the Council of Obas must do, must be done to strengthen the security in that area, but there must be cohesion and unity amongst us.

    “Anything that will bring about  peace and make the state progress is our priority and the security of lives and property has always been the priority of this government,” the governor said.

    Also yesterday, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Fatai Owoseni threatened to confiscate houses and hotels used as hideouts for kidnapping and other criminal activities in the state.

    Addressing reporters after the State Security Council meeting presided over by Ambode, Owoseni said: “There is no hiding place for criminal elements again as we get them, they would be made to face the full wrath of the law. In addition to that, the Council resolved that any structure or any places of hiding that criminal elements are using, the state will not hesitate to take over those safe havens, structures or houses,” he said.

    Owoseni also advised criminals  to turn over a new leaf and get themselves meaningfully engaged, warning that ‘’there is no hiding place for them in the state’’.

  • Lagos demolishes 350 shops under high tension

    Lagos demolishes 350 shops under high tension

    The Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences yesterday demolished over 350 illegal shops built under high tension cables at Oba Wahab Ayinde Balogun Modern Market, Isheri-Olofin in Egbe-Idimu Local Council Development Area.

    Residents and traders living or plying their trade under high tension cables across the state have also been warned to relocate.

    Task force Chairman Olayinka Saheed Egbeyemi, a Superintendent of Police (SP) said residents and traders of the illegal structures and shops/shanties were served adequate statutory notices before the demolition.

    The demolition was jointly carried out by the task force, the State Building Control Agency and Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development.

    Egbeyemi said the exercise was carried out by the government in order to protect lives and properties of the people.

    The Assistant General Secretary of the market Mr Yisa Mudashiru was reported to have said that the traders have been there for over 35 years, adding that the markets was developed in conjunction with officials of Egbe-Idimu Local Council Development Area.

    Egbeyemi said other areas where illegal structures and shops were constructed under high tension cables have been adequately served with demolition notices.

    He said: “With time the machinery of government would move to demolish such illegal structures within other local governments and local council development areas in the state.”

    Each shop is said to have been sold out rightly between N1.5 million to N3 million or a monthly rent of N5,000 by a developer who got the property from two sons of a monarch, who claimed to be owners of the land.

    A man, identified as Mr Paul Akuagbe and his wife, Florence, told the task force that they just paid the developer N30 million last Monday for outright purchase of 10 shops.

    The affected residents and traders called on the government to help them recover their money running into millions of naira from the developer.

  • Firm rates Lagos as most expensive African City in 2016

    Firm rates Lagos as most expensive African City in 2016

    •Projects increase in malls development

    Irrespective of drop in rents and increasing number of vacant houses, Lagos has been rated as the most expensive city in 2016 in the entire African continent.

    In the latest report published by a real estate firm, Savills, the firm noted that “Lagos has seen both a downward movement in office rent at -20 per cent and the effect of currency devaluation by the government -30 per cent. The amplification effect here significantly improves the city’s affordability for dollar-denominated companies.” This affirms that the impact of economic meltdown engendered by foreign exchange scarcity and drop in global oil revenue has also affected the real estate sector.

    The report further submitted that despite remaining one of the most expensive cities in the world, decline in Lagos rents implies that the city now “looks 27 per cent more affordable for international occupiers.”

    Yolande Barnes, director, Savills World Research, said: “Office-based businesses operating in major cities will spend one-third of their total operating costs on accommodation through a combination of commercial rents, paid directly to landlords, and demands on salaries created by the cost of employees’ living accommodation. Fluctuations in these costs will therefore have a significant bearing on how competitive a city is to employers.”

    The Savills “live-work index”, which measures the yearly per person cost of renting and occupying home and office per employee and their household) in 12 world cities, also noted that London, which has maintained the position of the most expensive city in the world for the past two and the half years, was overtaken by the city of New York. This is believed to be an effect of the referendum that saw the United Kingdom (UK) vote to leave the European Union. Since the referendum, prices of properties in the UK have been on the downward slope with little signs of recovery.

    In a similar development, the seeming retail revolution in some countries in Africa, particularly Nigeria, has not gone unnoticed. Going by a report from Sagaci Research, a market intelligence firm dedicated to African markets, by 2018, 223 new shopping centres are expected to be opened on the African continent.

    A breakdown of this shows that Nigeria only trails Egypt in the pecking order of mall development. While the country is predicted to have an additional 25 malls built by the period in study, the North African country of Egypt will have 40; Kenya is 20; 15 in Ghana, 14 in Angola and 13 in Morocco. By 2018, the firm predicts that the total surface area of malls would reach 10 million square metres.

    The latest “Shop Africa 2016” report ranked Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, as the leading shopping mall developer in sub-Saharan Africa. Knight Frank, a real estate consultancy firm, however rated Nigeria third, while Angola was second, followed by Tanzania and Mozambique. Nigeria has over 100,000 square meters of leasable area in modern format shopping centers and will be adding another 180,000 square meters of retail space this year, Nairobi alone has a mall space of 391,000 square metres.

    Yet, another research firm, Real Estate Information Centre, powered by Pison Housing Company, in its report, listed Africa’s top five cities as Luanda in Angola, which is second, Lagos, has the third largest mall pipeline, and then Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and finally Maputo in Mozambique completing the top five hotspots for mall space development in sub-Saharan Africa. The report said that these five cities were large, fast growing in economies, seen rapid expansion and being targeted by investors in Africa. Currently, Lagos and Abuja have about 10 commercial and office complexes, totaling over N100 billion, that are due for completion this year. Ongoing projects scheduled for delivery in 2016 are Madina Tower, The Wings Tower, Eden Heights, Alliance Place, Heritage Place, all in Lagos, while in Abuja it is the World Trade Centre.

  • Lagos to confiscate buildings used as criminal hideouts

    The Lagos State Government on Tuesday warned that it will not hesitate to confiscate houses and hotels used as hideouts for kidnapping and other criminal activities in the state.

    The state Commissioner of Police Mr. Fatai Owoseni, who read the riot act while briefing journalists after the State Security Council meeting presided over by the state Governor Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, said the government is poised to eradicate the menace of kidnapping and militancy in the state.

    He said, “The take away from today’s Security Council Meeting is for us to look at all the strategies that we have been employing in tackling the security challenges that we had in the state and to further strategise with the view to sustaining those measures that would put all the criminal elements in check and the Security Council of the State has come out to let our people know emphatically that the state is more poised at tackling all the criminal challenges and making sure that all the criminal elements that are going about in the state will not be allowed any free reign. They will not be given freedom of space to practice any of their criminal acts.

    “There is no hiding place for criminal elements again in the state and as we get them, they would be made to face the full wrath of the law. In addition to that, the Council resolved that any structure or any places of hiding that criminal elements are using in the state, the state will not hesitate, in the interest of the public, to take over those safe havens, structures or houses that these criminal elements are using as hiding places to perpetrate their criminal activities.”

    Owoseni warned commercial motorcyclists popularly known as Okada operating on restricted routes in the state to obey the state’s traffic laws, saying enforcement of the laws is still ongoing.

    He added: “The state still want to use this opportunity to further enlighten the public on the need to observe those laws that had been made in order to make life easy for the good people of Lagos.

    “The two particular ones that we have looked at is the restriction of the commercial motorcycles to certain routes in the state and of course the activities of street traders. What we want people to know is that the state is not sleeping on its enforcement duties but government is just trying to be responsible in the way these laws are enforced.”