*Says Lekki corridor towards Epe already opened up by Jakande, military governors before Tinubu
By KEMI KASUMU
“It is the lack of respect for the law by the Lagos State authority that deprived Kembu of the property. It is simply a land grab. It is a law long gazetted by the federal government that 100 meters to the shore line is a federal controlled asset. This still subsists.”
Nigeria’s former Minister of Communications and currently Trustee of Omo Eko Pataki, Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju (Rtd) raised a point of order, on Wednesday, following a 30-minute television documentary on Asiwaju’s political evolution titled, ‘Tinubu: The Pathfinder of New Lagos’.
The documentary was put together by people believed to be Tinubu’s Boys selling their principal’s political magnificence, sagacity and ability to prove wrong those who say he is unworthy to be the man President Muhammadu Buhari will hand over power to in 2023, for reasons best known to the critics.
But in effort to paint their the former Lagos State governor in better stead, the TV documentary appeared to have run foul of feelings of some indigenous elites of Eko among who General Olanrewaju is eminently positioned, where its documentary producers and Bola Tinubu, himself as heard in it, made reference to the Lekki corridor where Oriental Hotel is now located as a waste dump before he, as governor of Lagos State (1999-2007), opened it up and made it a city.
It will be recalled that Tinubu already had issues regarding his acclaimed indigeneship of Lagos and how that, for as long as his grip on the political landscape of the state has lasted, was marginalising the aborigines in the day-to-day affairs of the state and disenfranchising them by way of deprivation from their rights or privileges as indigenes, which has been the high-point of complaints by Omo Eko Pataki, which Chief Bode George is Chairman, General Olanrewaju Trustee, and Mr. Gbadebo Dalas is a major stakeholder.
As if reawakening an already tensed situation, therefore, especially at a time the Ojora Royal Family, as one of the historical owners of lands in the state that has erroneously been touted as ‘no man’s land’, took over its land hitherto occupied by Delta State Government Liaison Office in Victoria Island, the TV documentary appeared to the indigenes as an attempt to re-write their own history by non-indigenes.
To this end, General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, a bonafine son of Eko and Prince in the state, reacted to the documentary by setting the records straight to say, among others, that the Lekki corridor where Oriental Hotel stands currently was not a waste dump as claimed by the Tinubu’s Boys believed to be the people behind it and the principal himself.
Olanrewaju, who is also a former General Officer Commanding, Third Armoured Division Nigerian Army, said: “The Lekki Corridor which has lately been described as a shoreline of waste dump in a documentary released in a documentary by a Presidential Campaign Team is not a true reflection of the entire stretch of the landscape.
“I will not indulge myself on the ownership of the Oriental Hotel located along the lekki Road axis but it would be of interest to the public that the part of the land upon which the property is located was allocated to a company called Kembu by the federal government. I acknowledge an intimate relationship with this company . I’m still in possession of the Certificate of Occupancy issued to Kembu by the federal government.
“It is the lack of respect for the law by the Lagos State authority that deprived Kembu of the property. It is simply a land grab.
“It is a law long gazetted by the federal government that 100 meters to the shore line is a federal controlled asset. This still subsists.
“The Maroko land improvement Scheme was a project started and completed by Brig-..Gen Raji Rasaki and further improved by Military Administrators who took control of the State after his administration. It was the legendary Alhaji Lateef Jakande who had actually opened up the Lekki peninsula when the first democratic elected governor broke through the forests and the swamps with his road building crew, erecting first class roads from Ozumba Mbadiwe to the fringes of Epe, thereby opening up the Eastern corridor of Lagos state. Gbolahan Mudashiru, the military Administrator who succeeded him pushed the construction to Epe.
“Of course, as the governor of the State from 1999 to 2007, the Administration of Ahmed Bola Tinubu added one lane to the existing two and erected a toll gates to generate revenues.
“The general upgrades that attend the continuous service improvement on the Lekki & Eastern Corridor is a combined effort which had evolved over time and leaders at every stage of their engagement have added value to the Lekki peninsula
“Finally, just like all human activities and endeavors, Lagos is a work in progress. It is never an arrival. Government is a continuum, a progressive work in perpetual motion where all protagonists fulfil their chore and leave the scene for others to continue. That’s the rhythm of life. No one is ever etched in perpetual relevance save the grace of the living God,” he said.
