The General Overseer of Christ Voice Ministry, Pastor Johnson Arikawe, has accused officials of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences Unit of demolishing his church building and carting away church property.
Arikawe made the allegation in a petition to the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, a copy of which was made available to PUNCH Metro
It was gathered that the church, which was located on 10 plots of land at Bolorunpelu, Shapati, Lekki, Lagos, had earlier received a notice from the Lagos State Building Control Agency in June 2014, to stop further development of the property.
The notice, which was dated June 13, 2014, with Ref. No. LASBCA/LBC/SW/JUNE/14/002, stated that the building under construction was unauthorised and did not comply with the development permit issued by the Lagos State Physical Planning Authority.
It was learnt that on Friday, December 12, 2014, task force officials demolished the building and carted away some of the church’s property.
Expressing surprise at the demolition, Arikawe alleged that the action of the officials were not only malicious, but criminal.
He said, “I was at a prayer summit somewhere outside Lagos on the day of the incident. The surprising thing was that there was no prior notice and we have also stopped further development on the property as instructed.
“The structure was a temporary one. We intend to erect a more befitting and permanent structure as soon as we can. I was shocked when I received a call that some policemen had forcefully entered the church premises and demolished the building. Attempts by some members of my church to salvage some of the church’s property were unsuccessful as they were denied access to the premises.
“After the demolition, the officials took time to destroy the building materials, making sure that nothing was salvaged. They also carted away church property, including drum set, keyboard, amplifiers, generators, speakers and microphones.
“We consider this action as not only malicious, but criminal. We have written to the governor to come to our aid, but we have yet to get any help. As I speak to you now, we now conduct services in members’ residences, from one house to another.”
On whether there was any issue concerning the land on which the church was built, Arikawe said there was no contention about the land as he bought the property from the rightful owners.
“Our investigations revealed that there is no contention about ownership of the land where my church is located. The Ojule family is the rightful owner of the land and I bought same from the members directly.
“When the incident happened, I called Sakiru, one of the Ojule sons, who rushed to the scene to intervene. He was arrested and was only released on Sunday when news got to them that his father had died. Sakiru is now the Baale of the community after his late father,” he said.
Reacting, the Public Relations Officer, LASBCA, Dapo Ajayi, said the agency was not aware of the demolition, even though it had issued the notice.
“We issued the stop-work notice because the work going on at the site as of then was not according to plan, but we are not aware of the demolition,” he said.
However, the task force Chairman, Bayo Sulaiman, said what was demolished was not a building, but a shanty built on government land.
On the issue of carting away church property, he said, “After the demolition, we felt that some of the items would be plundered after we have left. We took those items and put them in a safe place. All the owner needs to do is to come and claim the items.
“They will come with proof of ownership to claim the items. Mind you, there was no building on that land, it was a make-shift structure erected on government land.”
