Lagos-Ibadan Expressway expansion: Lagos kicks against planned demolition of houses by Bi-Courtney

The Lagos State government, yesterday, declared as illegal and unconstitutional, quit notices given to some house owners and residents in the Ikosi GRA and its environs by agents of the Federal Government over allegation that their property fall within the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway expansion project site. Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited, the contractor handling the expressway, issued the notices on behalf of the Federal Government.

But Lagos State government, in a statement by the state Lands Bureau signed by its Permanent Secretary, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola, said the 1999 Constitution (Amendment 2011) and Land Use Act “vest exclusive power of revocation of right of occupancy to any piece of land within the state in the governor of the state.”
In the statement, dated August 4, Muri-Okunola said the act by agents of the Federal Government to issue notice of acquisition through Bi-Courtney Highway Services, the concessionaire of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, was illegal and out rightly unconstitutional.


He said: “Some of these property have consequently been marked for demolition. The agents of the Federal Government have also been going around offering or negotiating compensation payable for the acquisition.”