Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Barrister Tokunbo Philip Wahab, has dismissed reports that the Ministry demanded payments from property owners to stop the demolition of houses at Oral Estate, Ikota-Lekki.
In a viral video, a woman was heard saying that Wahab and other officials from the ministry had agreed to stop the demolition after requesting N1 billion and later settled for N700 million.
She alleged: ‘Thank God for today. We have peace of mind. We’re not hearing an excavator tearing people’s houses down, people crying. The Commissioner, Ministry of Environment came and we had an agreement that my estate is going to pay N1 billion for shit piling, It ended in N700 million for shit piling. My estate is trying to gather the money and give them this month’.
But in a statement on his official social media accounts on Sunday, the commissioner said that neither he nor any official from the ministry requested or received money, ‘whether N1 billion, N700 million, or a single kobo’.
He described the video as a deliberate attempt to blackmail the government and a dangerous distraction from efforts to prevent flooding and protect Lagos residents.
He wrote: ‘My attention has been drawn to a circulating video containing false and malicious allegations that the Ministry demanded money from property owners to pause the ongoing removal of structures on drainage setbacks at Oral Estate, Ikota.
‘I must state categorically that these claims are entirely false and a deliberate attempt to blackmail the government.
‘Neither I nor any official from the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources has ever requested nor received any payment, whether N1 billion, N700 million, or a single kobo, from any property owner’.
Wahab explained that ‘the operation to clear the Right of Way and Setbacks to different channels, and canals of illegal obstructions is a public safety imperative, and it has not been paused for any form of negotiation or payment. Our work continues.
‘This propaganda is a dangerous distraction from our critical mission to prevent flooding and protect the majority of Lagosians’.
He added that the Ministry takes the defamatory allegations ‘with the utmost seriousness’ and will pursue the matter through the courts.
‘We shall be pursuing this matter legally, and the individual behind these claims will be required to provide proof to the appropriate authorities’ Wahab further said.
The denial comes amid visible enforcement action in parts of Ikota and neighbouring estates, where government teams have removed structures found within river setbacks and drainage corridors, actions Wahab said are necessary to prevent recurrent seasonal flooding.
The Ministry had warned residents against entertaining intermediaries or paying money to forestall statutory enforcement.
