The Ajao Estate houses demolition: The guilty ones and the accomplices

BY STANLEY ALIEKE

There was a galore of tears in Lagos at the weekend as the state government demolished 13 houses in Ajao estate. 

In defence of the government action, the officials of the Lagos state government have stated that “the demolition of 13 residential buildings at Rockview Street, Ajao Estate, occurred because they were illegally constructed along fuel pipelines. The houses which were close to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport did not have planning permits before they were built”.

We can all see that this reason of the government is a justifiable reason to demolish those houses and there was no “mago mago”.

This is not the first time houses are demolished due to the fact that they are constructed on the wrong sites or that the necessary permits were never gotten or that permits were gotten through illegal channels. Unfortunately, this won’t also be the last time houses will be demolished due to the stubbornness of house builders and the Nigerian factor of always bribing government officials to bend rules for them.

I shook my head when I heard watchers suggesting to the owners of the demolished houses that they should drag the Lagos government to court so that the court will mandate the Lagos state government to compensate the owners of the houses with other houses or with money. Why I shook my head is that those suggesting approaching the court in this instance are obviously ignorant of how the law works. They do not know that you can not use the court to enforce illegality. The owners of the demolished houses will have no remedy under the common law because they committed illegality by erecting their structures on an illegal site. You cannot, as a matter of a longstanding common law rule, ask the court to enforce your illegality because he that comes before equity must come with both hands sparkling clean.

The conversations we should be having at this point is to ask ourselves serious questions like; how do the house owners get to be allowed to erect structures on a government-reserved site; which government official(s) collected bribes and approved the erection of those structures and issued them with the building permit?

Well, both the owners of those houses who know full well that the area is a GRA and offered kickbacks to government officials to get approvals to erect their houses are as guilty as the government officials who took bribes and issued illegal permits.

In a scenario like this, there are numerous guilty parties as well as other accomplices who colluded and bent rules for the illegality to take place until the stack of cards came crashing down.

There is no gainsaying that the number one guilty person(s) in this instant is the government official(s) who accepted bribes and approved illegal structures in a government-reserved area.

The second guilty parties are the dishonest and fraudulent real estate companies and landlords that erect houses in a GRA to quickly sell them off to unsuspecting buyers and leave the new/ignorant owners to carry the cross. The Nigerian real estate industry is a crime scene with a lot of renowned real estate companies and builders as part of the crime syndicate. They are mostly fraudulent and dishonest, taking advantage of unsuspecting buyers.

“The crime that goes on in the Nigerian real estate industry from money laundering to broad day fraud to cutthroat rip-offs — which all happens due to the fact that the real estate industry in Nigeria is barely regulated — should be an article of its own which I will tackle next time.” 

Fraudulent house agents who market and sell bad properties with the full knowledge that the houses they are selling will be demolished by the government but they are only interested in their agent fees, are as well accomplices in this organised crime.

Charge and bail lawyers, who when consulted to verify the root of titles of properties and verify if a property is under any encumbrance, only collect the client’s money but fail to carry out a due diligent search on the property are as well guilty in the first degree.

The psychological and behavioural syndrome of “get things easy and cheaper” should have its own share of the blame.  When an offer is too cheap or too good to be true, it should not excite you that you are getting a good deal, it should make you ask some questions and do some more research to know if you are really getting a good deal or you are being groomed to be duped.

Going forward, these are ways we can ensure that what happened yesterday in Ajao estate will not happen again in the nearest future;

1. Use genuine lawyers to verify the properties you are about to purchase. The lawyer will verify not just the root of the title of the property but also research to know if there is any encumbrance on the property.
2. Lawyers, when consulted, should carry out a due diligent search on the property and advise the client as to the authenticity or otherwise of the property.
3. You as an intending house builder or buyer should take out the time to study the city planning map and be sure that the land or house you are purchasing does not fall under a Government Reserved Area. Also, take your time to verify the land survey planning and mapping.
4. Dishonest government officials collecting illegal kickbacks and approving structures on the wrong sites should face the full dose of the law.
5. Avoid cheap and easy things. Once it is too cheap or too good to be true that should trigger a red flag.
6. We all should learn to follow the due process of the law; stop offering bribes to government officials to approve a structure in the wrong site, you will be at the losing end in the long run.
7. The Nigerian real estate industry needs serious overhauling through legislation and regulation. The Nigerian real estate market as I said earlier is a full-time crime scene with so much fraud going on.

But aside from all these, do not be too stubborn to move when you have been issued with a demotion notice hoping that you can bribe your way out of it. Vacate the building immediately, that would give you ample time to save most of your valued movable properties inside the house so that it does not get demolished or destroyed alongside the building. This is important if you were ignorant of the fact that the property was erected on an illegal site because before a property is demolished by the government, a series of notices must have been given but Nigerians are stubborn people, only to come back and cry and cuss out that they were denied access into the building during the demolition time to take out some of their valuables.

If Nigerians take to heart all of these recommendations then we will not be witnessing regular demolition of properties by the government due to the fact that the houses were erected in an illegal location.

Stanley Alieke is an Abuja-based legal practitioner. He can be reached via [email protected]