Activist
lawyer and human rights campaigner, Femi Falana, lashed out at the
Fashola administration in Lagos State Sunday saying it is promoting
murder, orchestrating a massive internal displacement of citizens
through forceful eviction, and waging a war of impunity against poor
people.
Mr. Falana, reacting to the police killing of the Baale of Makoko in
Lagos State by armed mobile policemen for protesting the forceful
eviction and demolition of the houses owned by members of his community,
said the
Lagos State Government should be “held vicariously liable in
the circumstance” which he tagged a “willful destruction of
properties… that is illegal and unconstitutional.”
He said killers of the Baale of Makoko should
be “arrested and prosecuted for murder” and that “monetary damages to
the dependants of the deceased whose fundamental right to life has been
brutally violated” adding that “those whose houses have been by
destroyed the government are equally entitled to compensation that is
fair and just.”
Mr
Falana blasted the government for giving a 72-hour quit notice on a
Friday to prevent the owners from seeking redress in court because, as
he argued “Before the expiration of the illegal ejection, the Lagos
State Government took the law into its hand by engaging in the
demolition of houses without a court order.”
He
said this is a “violation of the State Rent Control and Recovery of
Premises law that have criminalised the forceful ejection any person
resident in Lagos State without an order issued by a competent court and
executed by the Sheriff and Bailiff of the court.”
Mr.
Falana asked the state government not to spit on its constitutional
duty which requires it to "secure full resident rights for every citizen
in all parts of the Federation" saying what the government appears to
be doing is to capitalise on the poverty of the Makoko people by
confiscating their marsh land, develop it with public funds, and then
turn round to distribute it to some elite elements, as it happened in
Maroko under a military dictatorship.
- Premium Times
...Oga Guvnor na wahhh! Live & let Live!
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