Rights Group Condemns Obi Over Anti-Lagos Mobilisation

A civil society organisation, Centre for Social and Economic Rights, have condemned the actions of the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, denouncing his mobilisation of opposition political figures from the southeastern region of Nigeria t...

The Lagos State Government had earlier carried out an enforcement law against illegal structures erected against the state’s physical planning laws.

Obi, who had earlier led a delegation of opposition leaders to the market to assess the scene of the enforcement, condemned the demolition, insisting that traders secured necessary permits.

However, in a statement signed by the organisation’s executive director, Nelson Ekujumi, made available to TVC on Wednesday, he described his actions as a “reckless, irresponsible, crude, lawless, condemnable and provocative politicisation of the Lagos State government’s enforcement of building laws in the state.

The statement reads, “The Centre for Social and Economic Rights (CSER) also used the occasion of Nigeria’s 65th Independence anniversary celebration to lambast the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, for his reckless, irresponsible, crude, lawless, condemnable and provocative politicisation of the Lagos State government’s enforcement of building laws in the state.

“According to the group, Mr Peter Obi has once again demonstrated by his utterances while on a visit with some other persons to the demolished illegal structures at the trade fair complex on the Lagos Badagry expressway, that he is a man at war with a society built and sustained by law and order.”

The group noted that the Lagos State government, just like any other government in any part of the world, has a responsibility to uphold law and order to protect life and property, which is its primary responsibility.

It said, “We were shocked and dumbfounded by Mr Peter Obi’s description of a state government’s enforcement of the laws in line with its statutory function as ‘A test of impunity, justice and compassion’, which is regrettable.

The group then went on to remind Peter Obi and his co travellers to whom everything including violations of the law should be politicized and trivialized, that the powers of the Lagos State government to regulate building developments is derived under the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Act 1992 as domesticated by the Lagos State Physical Planning and Development Regulations and was further reinforced by the Supreme Court judgement of 2003 (Attorney General of Lagos State vs Attorney General of the Federation) that land use and physical planning falls under concurrent jurisdiction and states retain the authority to regulate development control within their territories including federal lands.

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The group stated that, “in view of the above quoted aspects of the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of which Lagos is a part, we are at a loss to rationalize how someone of Mr Peter Obi calibre, a former Governor of a state in Nigeria can descend to dancing naked in the market place all because of politics which is condemnable in it’s entirety”.

The rights group called on well-meaning Nigerians, democrats and adherents of societies built on the principle of law and order, to caution and counsel Peter Obi to retrace his established shameless, provocative, irresponsible and condemnable incitement against the statutory enforcement of laws by state institutions, which is germane to law, order, peace, and prosperity.

TVC previously reported that the Lagos State Government has denounced the statement by Peter Obi, a former Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, after he described the state’s enforcement of its physical planning laws at Lagos Trade Fair Complex as “a Test of Impunity, Justice and Compassion.”

Obi, who had earlier led a delegation of opposition leaders to the market to assess the scene of the enforcement, condemned the demolition, insisting that traders secured necessary permits.

However, in a Wednesday statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, the state condemned Obi’s statement, describing it as “an effort to mislead the public by misinformation and disinformation.”