Legal luminary and member of the Oyo State Advisory Council, Barrister Michael Lana has blamed the sudden explosion which rocked Bodija Estate in Ibadan last Tuesday to lack of scheme by government for the Government Reserve Area (GRA).
Speaking on the development in Ibadan, the astute politician who contested for office of the governor in 2023 on the platform of Social Democratic Party (SDP) said government is supposed to make schemes to demarcate the areas for certain use in order to guide against such disaster.
While lamenting on the damage which the recent explosion had done to people who lived in the Bodija area, Barrister Lana urged government to stick to the use of scheme and that there should be rule of law for proper administration of the scheme such that will forbid people to build commercial or business centers in residential areas, saying what caused the Bodija explosion was lack of proper scheme for the area.
“The theme of governor Seyi Makinde for this year is rule of law and he has been doing that in his government. In this scheme, there must be rule of law to carry out proper administration of the scheme and without sentiment.
According to the erudite lawyer, “we tend to look at issues from tribal angle, adding the issue of whether Malians or Togolese live legally or illegal in the country was not the case but proper scheming, security and community development of the entire of the area can guide against such development.
“That is where we are missing it, government is supposed to be making schemes to demarcate certain areas for certain purpose. Nobody should be allowed to bring commercial or industries in residential scheme or residential to commercial schemes, that was what caused the Bodija problem. It was the major cause of the problem.”
The erudite lawyer said: “The old Bodija is the oldest Government Reserve Area (GRA) in Oyo State and it is strictly meant for residential purposes, adding that the explosion that rocked the area was due to lack of scheme and poor management of security in the area over some time.
“Bodija Estate is strictly residential and there ought not to be any commercial activities in that area. Most of the owners of those buildings are dead and their children have given the buildings to estate agent who rented the place for commercial activities. I doubt it if there is any landlord association there, and if there be any, they can’t be effective because of strange business that have sprang up in that area.”
Barrister Lana said except the state government take a bold step like the former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mallam Nasir El Rufai did in Abuja by demolishing commercial building in residential scheme, the development would continue.
“Look at Oluyole Estate, It has been into two schemes, one part is residential and the other part is industrial, but everything is now industrial and commercial which should not be.”
“Community development and security was one of my major objectives when I was campaigning for governorship position in 2023, and I was using the terrorist attack on Catholic church Owoh in Ondo state then as example. There was no way the terrorist would have achieved the attacked without being detected and apprehended if there was adequate security and community development in place.”
“First and foremost, the problem of Bodija is that of ‘man know man’, we use man know man to distract from the law, there should be no business enterprise in Bodija, all the business centers there ought not be there, they are illegal under the country planning law. The scheme of Bodija is strictly residential there ought not to be any commercial activities in the area.”
“one of the things I will be discussing with the governor at the state advisory council meeting next week is to empower or legalise the activities of landlord associations on security and development of the residential scheme.
We need to build on the law that legalized landlord associations by former military administrator Ike Nwosu to levy fees for development and security of residential scheme. There should also be a ministry, agency or unit of government that will be saddled with this assignment. It should be registered just as we register NGOs to regulate and penalize their activities.
The versatile lawyer admonished government to give Baales and community leader function to play on the issue of security and community development in order to forestall likely occurrence in any part of the state.
He urged government not to centralized registration of license to foreigners especially miners saying there must be a form of control by the state government who is in charge of lands in their respective state.
Barrister Lana who commended the state governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde for his proactive measures and swift response to victims of the explosion urged the people to cooperate with his administration of the governor in order to move the state forward.
