Two groups; De Renaissance Patriots Foundation and Ibeju-Lekki Peoples Forum, have dragged the Lagos State Government to the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, where it is being urged to disclose information regarding the validity of Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s recent assertion that he made a payment of $100 million for land to the government.
The local residents are requesting that, if this claim is accurate, Lagos must provide a comprehensive explanation of how such a significant sum was obtained, “in exchange for the poor Ibeju-Lekki people’s land and why there was no public statement to the effect, and then to state which account the money was paid to and what it was used for.”
This request is outlined in an initial motion filed under Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, as well as under sections 1, 3, 4, 7, 20, and 24 of the Freedom of Information Act 2011, and the inherent jurisdiction of the Honourable Court concerning the application submitted by De Renaissance Patriots Foundation and Ibeju-Lekki.
The applicants included the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; the Attorney General of Lagos State; the Accountant General of Lagos State; the Permanent Secretary of the Lands Bureau in Lagos State, along with the Lagos State Government, as parties in the case.
The motion, filed and registered by the court under Suit No FHC/L/CS/1603/2024, which was submitted on Friday, September 6, 2024, is seeking the court for an Order of Mandamus directed at the respondents, aimed at compelling the Lagos State Government to provide the information sought by the applicants.
Speaking after the filing of the motion on Friday, lead counsel to the applicants, Yakubu Eleto, said the entire livelihood of the people of Ibeju-Lekki was destroyed by the mere fact of the siting of the Dangote Refinery without any affected resident/host communities compensated.
Eleto said: “Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), as sitting Governor in 2015, using a public address, said that they brought Dangote to Ibeju-Lekki in good faith to assist governance, to assist the Lagos State economy, that they gave him the land for free and that he didn’t pay anything for it.”
He said that was what the Lagos State Government at the time used to cajole the people until recently, nine years after, that Dangote cried out saying the land he used to build his refinery was not for free, but that he paid $100 million for it.
He said the people of the area have suffered neglect for the past nine years only for them to now hear from Dangote that he paid $100 million for the same land they were not compensated for.
Eleto added: “Out of the fact that they don’t have money, they pay a lot to give themselves energy and it is now sounded to their ears to hear that about $100 million was collected in exchange for their land and some individuals sit on that money.
“We want to know where that money is.”
The case, according to Eleto, was yet to be assigned to a judge because it was filed on a Friday, explaining that cases in Federal High Courts are assigned Tuesdays and Thursdays.
He added: “By Tuesday, September 10, it is going to be assigned to a judge.”
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