CITIZENS COMPASS – BARELY a week into the demolition of 13 buildings iat Rain view in Ajao Estate, Lagos State, the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has called for investigations on the demolished houses by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
The committee is led by Honourable Nnolim Nnaji
The Committee, which held a public hearing on the demolition exercise on Wednesday, May 3r, 2023, resolved to send a fact-finding team headed by Hon. Ifeanyi Momah to visit the site on Friday, May 5th, 2023.
Hon. Momah, who was conducted with his five-man team to inspect the Runview demolition site by the FAAN Managing Director, Captain Rabiu Yadudu, affirmed that the structures, some of which were on top of aviation fuel pipelines and canals, posed great danger to flight operations.
The team only expressed surprise that the authority’s management waited till some of the houses were fully built and occupied before taking action.
However, quite a number of the plots within the red zones were either at the foundation or a little above foundation levels, while others were just erected shanties.
The lawmakers also interfaced with the Chairman of the Resident Association, Chief Azuzu Okoro, and the co-chairman of the joint revalidation team, Dr. Fidelis Ugwegbu, with a view to addressing the fact-finding team.
Dr. Ugwuegbo, who spoke on behalf of the Resident Association, appreciated the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation for the interest shown in the matter.
He acknowledged that the notice of the demolition was served on the owners of the properties sharing a fence with the Airport’s perimeter fence way back in 2015.
Dr. Ugwuegbu also disclosed that after the revalidation exercise was completed, all those whose plots were within the red zone were properly advised not to proceed with erecting structures, adding that some of them heeded but others ignored the advice and went ahead.
The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal Abuja will today begin pre-hearing in the petitions challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared that Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress polled 8,794,726 votes to win the election.
The commission declared that Atiku came second with 6,984,520 votes, while it announced Labour Party’s Peter Obi as the second runner-up with 6,101,533 votes.
But Atiku, Obi and some other parties rejected the results announced by INEC and had approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to annul Tinubu’s victory.
The PUNCH had last week exclusively reported that the tribunal would begin pre-hearing today.
On what to expect at today’s proceedings, a senior lawyer in Tinubu’s camp, who asked not to be named, told one of our correspondents on Sunday that, “The only thing they will do is to schedule the hearing, the number of witnesses, how many minutes the witness will use, and how to admit the documents; that’s what they call pre-trial.
“They are going to prepare a timetable for the hearing of the cases, the number of days to be spent by the petitioners, the number of days to be spent by the respondents, how do we take in the documents, certified true copy of the documents, are they going to be admitted like that or if there is an objection, how do we raise an objection to document?
” Will the court write a ruling on objection immediately or will the court write it in the cause of the main judgment? Those are the things that will happen tomorrow (Monday).”
Atiku, in his 66-page petition, is praying the tribunal to declare him winner of the poll or order a fresh election.
On his part, Obi, in his petition, is also praying the tribunal to nullify Tinubu’s election7
