A civil society organisation, the Save Lagos Group has raised an alarm<\/p>\n
over widespread abuse of the Lagos State Tenancy Law by house owners in
\nthe state, with a call on the state government to live up to its
\nobligations of enforcing the law.<\/p>\n
According to the Save Lagos Group, there is the need for the state
\ngovernment to save tenants in the state from house owners who have found
\nan habit in flouting the law which stipulates that prospective and current
\ntenants must pay only six months rents.<\/p>\n
The Save Lagos Group in a statement issued on Friday by the Convener,
\nComrade Adeniyi A Sulaiman and the Director, Media and Strategy, Comrade
\nOlaolu Oladipo also lamented that home owners have been conniving with
\nsome legal practitioners to obtained fictitious judgments that are used
\nfor eviction purposes.<\/p>\n
The group also alleged that some unscrupulous police officers also engage
\nthe legal practitioners and the house owners to carry out the illegality
\nof evicting hapless tenants, saying the practice is usually carried out on
\nSunday morning when the victims would be caught unaware.<\/p>\n
They (Sulaiman and Oladipo) also indicted some of the legal practitioners
\nfor their refusal to follow the law by issuing quit notices before the
\nexpiration of the tenancy of the occupier, a move the Save Lagos Group
\nconsiders as illegal and wicked.<\/p>\n
The law was enacted by the immediate past administration of Mr. Babatunde
\nFashola in 2011 to regulate the relationship between the house owners and
\ntheir tenants.<\/p>\n
Save Lagos Group pointed to a case involving two land ladies, one Mrs.
\nOnatade and Alhaja Bilikisu Adesina of number 9 and 11, Ezekiel St, Off
\nToyin Street Ikeja; Lagos respectively.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the group accused the two house owners of issuing quit
\nnotices to their tenants before the expiration of their tenancy.<\/p>\n
The two tenants, Ms Deborah Ogunlade and Mrs. Yetunde Labode are said to
\nbe the latest victims in the hands of the two house owners who are
\ncurrently harassing them by plotting to obtain a \u2018Jankara\u2019 eviction order
\nagainst them.<\/p>\n
Rather for the lawyers to the house owners, to follow Section (24) of the
\nLagos Tenancy Law which guides eviction of the tenants, they have opted to
\nperfect their scheme in an illegal way by securing the eviction order
\nwithout bringing the affected tenants into the picture.<\/p>\n
A document from one of the house owners, Oyesola Oyewo obtained by the
\nSave Lagos Group indeed confirmed the fears of the civil society
\norganization as the quit notice indeed was issued before the expiration of
\nthe Ogunlade\u2019s tenancy.<\/p>\n
A closer look at the document shows that while the notice was issued on
\nApril 25th, while the tenant received it on 1st of June 2016.<\/p>\n
On the hand, the counsel to the other house owner, Mr. Ayo Adebosin
\nclaimed to have issued a quit notice on Labode on the 27th of June 2016
\nbut Labode received it in August though her rent lapsed on July.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the development, the Save Lagos Group stated that \u201cThese are
\nclear breaches of the law by the home owners that must not be overlooked
\nby the relevant authorities. What is even more pertinent is the
\ndesperation on the part of the house owners to recover the said property
\nby hook or by crook.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile calling on the state government to be more alive to its
\nresponsibilities in ensuring that the provisions of the law are strictly
\nadhered to by the concerned stakeholders, we are also using this platform
\nto called on the lawyers and their clients to desists from these illegal
\nacts of intimidation of their tenants or else, the provisions of the law
\nwould be invoked on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is coming just as the Save Lagos Group has expressed its desire to
\napply legal action to right the wrongs being carried out by the house
\nowner by offering free legal services to the affected tenants in their bid
\nto secure their fundamental rights to shelter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A civil society organisation, the Save Lagos Group has raised an alarm over widespread abuse of the Lagos State Tenancy Law by house owners in the state, with a call…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n