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The Lagos State Government has said it will soon embark on demolition of illegal buildings built on petroleum pipelines and under high tension electricity cables lines in the state.

The Commissioner for Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, who disclosed this to the residents of Mosan Okunola area of the state where the August edition of the environmental sanitation inspection took place, said the state government will soon remove illegal structure at short notice without compensation.

Bello told the residents gripped with fear over their fate that the government will also demolish houses built on the drainage channels and walk ways to pave way for free flow of storm water and mitigate effects of flooding in the state.

According to him, the state government would soon embark on the sensitisation of the general public on the dangers inherent in indiscriminate building, saying it is wrong for anyone to build illegally and indiscriminately without approval by the state government.

He words: “We need to mobilise people; we need to sensitise them on the need to be aware of their environment and the danger of their actions. What is happening now is that people are building indiscriminately, you see people extending their fences, their houses. If government wants to build a drainage channel, how do government build drainage channel in that kind of situation?

“These are one of the things we have to tell our people to realise that and stop such action. In the process of trying to build our canals, many of the buildings located on the drains will have to go.”

Harping on the clamour for compensation for those whose illegal structures would be affected, Bello said the state government will not compensate anyone for violating the building approval and environmental law.

•Credit: Leadership. •Photo shows Lagos Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello.

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