The massive looting of Lagos state by the Leader of the Action Congress
of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has reached monumental proportion. Tinubu whose
companies recently cornered a multibillion road construction job in Ogun State,
has in his pocket all the juicy contract in all the Action Congress’ states.In retrospect, it might be difficult to come to terms with the fact
that an individual could hold the entire south west on its balls. There is no
doubt that Tinubu has succeeded in buying the Lagos State government, and he
has done this using government funds.Whenever someone in Lagos begins to wonder where their 4th mainland
bridge went, or what was the fate of the pipe-borne water project, or even
where the schools and hospitals had vanished to, there is a silence that
contains it all. The largest landlord in Lagos has done as he has pleased, and
the rest of the state just has to deal with it. For instance: Number 4, Oyinkan
Abayomi (formerly Queens) Drive, Ikoyi: A 5-bedroom detached house on one acre
of land which was originally the Lagos State Governor’s guest house since 1979,
now belongs to Tinubu. The certificate of occupancy of the property valued at
N450 million was signed and released to him by Fashola in 2007 shortly after he
assumed office.
Tinubu’s residence at 26 Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi was initially falsely
presented as Oando Plc Guest House. Later, he purportedly bought it from Oando,
and used public funds to rebuild and renovate it. The Lagos State Government
bought the property and paid an undisclosed sum to him and thereafter gave the
property back to him under the bogus Pension Bill he signed to law shortly
before he left office in 2007. The property is worth over N600 million
according to source.The annex of the Lagos State Guest House in Asokoro, Abuja was bought
by the State Government in 2006 for N450 million, purportedly to protect the
main house from security breach. Shortly after Tinubu left office, the property
was transferred to him under the pension plan he signed into law before leaving
office.The 250-hectare land valued at about N35billion and strategically
located at the Ajah junction on Lekki Road was initially meant for a General
Hospital for the people of Eti-Osa Local Government but was stolen by Tinubu
and handed over to Trojan Estate Ltd – a company owned by Deji and Wale Tinubu
– to develop as Royal Garden Housing Estate at the expense of the taxpayers of
Lagos.The 1,000 hectares of land valued at about N75billion located at Lakowe
near Abijo at Ibeju-Lekki Local Government and given to Lekki Concession
Company (LCC) which is partly- owned by Tinubu and Fashola and being developed
as golf course and housing estate by Assets and Resource Management Ltd (ARM)
as ADIVA project.The prime land of 157 hectares with 2.5km of Atlantic beachfront valued
at about N10billion and stolen by Tinubu from the communities of Siriwon,
Igbekodo, Apakin, etc in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government and given to Ibukun
Fakeye – his crony to build a golf course and luxury villa with little or no
compensation to the villagers. In addition, Tinubu paid $20million (N3billion)
out of public treasury to Ibukun Fakeye to commence the project in late 2006.
Fashola has since released additional funding for this project, which is not
owned by the state government.The 14-hectare Parkview Ikoyi Estate foreshore land reclaimed by Lagos
State Government is now owned by Bola Tinubu.While in office, he allocated to himself the former Strabag yard beside
the Lagos State Secretariat at Alausa, Ikeja. The property is now being
developed into a shopping mall as big as the Palms in Lekki. This is public
property brazenly stolen and now owned by Tinubu, aided by his cohort, Fashola.The choice property at Lekki-Epe road on which he built and owns the
multi-billion Naira Oriental Hotel and the extension of multi-storey car park
beside it. Also, the multi-level recreation centre by Mobil in Oniru Estate on
Lekki-Epe road jointly owned with ARM and Tunji Olowolafe. All these assets
valued at over N25billion were obtained without paying a kobo to the Lagos
State Government.Tinubu and Fashola sold the following prime Lagos properties to their
personal friend and frontier – Prince Dipo Eludoyin at very ridiculous prices:
• The 3.8-hectare of land of Lagos State Fisheries office in VI (beside
the Institute of Oceanography) valued at N3billion.
• The fishery landing jetty at Badore (where the Ilubirin fishermen
were to be relocated) valued at N500million
• The entire Ogudu foreshore scheme initially earmarked for a low-cost
housing scheme valued at N5billion
• The Ilubinrin housing estate (which used to house Lagos state civil
servants and judges up till 2007) valued at N2.5billion.
• The former Julius Berger yard at Oko Orisan, Epe valued at
N450million .Tinubu raised a loan of N4.7billion on Eko Akete project for which
nothing was achieved before he turned around to sell the property to his
Chagouri friends of Chagouri & Chagouri and Hitech Construction Ltd at a
ridiculously low price once again at the expense of the taxpayers of Lagos.Tinubu applied to personally purchase the Federal Secretariat building
while in office. When he couldn’t get to buy it, he directed Fashola to stop
the eventual owner of the complex to develop it. The complex is presently
wasting away courtesy of the Lagos State Government.It took several months of horse trading and underhand payments before
Fashola could allow the new owners of 1004 flats to redevelop the complex.
Several other buyers of Federal Government properties and developers of
properties in Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Government Reservation Area Ikeja were
forced to succumb to the outrageous demands of Tinubu, Fashola, Commissioner
Abosede and other officials of the Lagos State Physical Planning Ministry and
were made to pay ridiculous amounts to private accounts before their
redevelopments were approved. Those who refused or were unable to pay could not
develop their properties. This is a major economic strangulation of property
developers and has contributed largely to the skyrocketing rent in Ikoyi, VI
and Lekki axis of Lagos.Tinubu converted all the plots of land where Lagos Polytechnic was
located at Ikosi near the old toll gate. He chased away the Polytechnic
management in 2006 and went ahead to locate the choice plots to himself, his
cronies and political associates. The headquarters of Television Continental
(TVC), which is owned by him, is located there. He deprived the youths of Lagos
of decent education because of his greed and selfishness.
To be continue...
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