The Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) says it has arrested two men who allegedly and illegally rented a government building located within three public schools in Amuwo-Odofin area to the public.
The LAGESC Corps Marshall, Maj. Olaniyi Cole, confirmed the arrest on Wednesday after raiding the two-storey uncompleted building primarily built for persons with disabilities.
Mr Cole noted that the school premises housing the uncompleted building, also has Amuwo Odofin Nursery and Primary School, Iganmu Senior High School and Unity Nursery and Primary School.
He said that investigation carried out before the raid revealed that there were illegal lodgers in the premises while the schools were in sessions.
The corps marshall said that one of the suspects, who claimed to be employed as a security guard at the building, made them understand that former Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration gave Phycom Nigeria Ltd. the structure to convert to a school.
He said that the company was to provide accommodation and specialised facilities for the teaching of pupils with special needs, stressing that the project was later abandoned after Mr Fashola left office.
“He confirmed to us that he had to rent out some of the rooms to make ends meet because Phycom Nigeria Limited stopped paying him in 2018,” Mr Cole quoted one of the suspects as saying.
Business centres, artisans shops and an Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) shrine around the fence of the schools were destroyed during the operation.
Mr Cole said that the operation would affect all public schools in Lagos State, stressing that Amuwo-Odofin was the seventh public schools they were pulling down illegal structures.
He said the illegal structures posed a security risk to the students of the schools, pointing out that one particular school where such an operation was carried out had a door linked to a hotel.
The agency’s boss said those renting out government properties would be arrested, while those they rented the buildings to would be sent out.
He said one of the reasons the operation was being carried out was for the government to put the structures back to better use, rather than abandon them for criminal elements to occupy.
Some residents of Amuwo-Odofin who spoke with journalists on the sidelines of the demolition, called on Lagos state government to turn the abandoned building to a sports academy.
They noted that, though the building was primarily built for persons with disabilities, turning it into a sports academy would improve the lives of the youths in the area.
Femi Ilusanmi, a community youth leader, said he was one of the students who graduated from the Iganmu High School, Amuwo-Odofin, some 40 years ago. He stressed that many uncompleted buildings owned by the government littered many places in Lagos.
Another resident, Olusegun Sururakat, whose shop was destroyed, said they were not given enough time for them to move their things out before they pulled down their shops.
Ms Sururakat said he had nothing against pulling down illegal structures around public schools, but that, however, the illegal occupants should be given enough time to move out.
The Corps also cleared illegal traders at Mile-2/Badagry Expressway.