A group, under the aegis of De Renaissance Patriots and the Ibeju-Lekki people, has dragged the Lagos State Government before the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, urging the court to compel the state government to respond, whether true or false, to the recent claim by Alhaji Aliko Dangote that he paid $100 million to it as compensation for the land he acquired for his refinery.
It will be recalled that in July 2024, Alhaji Dangote claimed in one of his broadcasts that he purchased approximately 7,000 acres of land for his refinery from the Lagos State Government for $100 million.
The Media Office of De Renaissance Patriots Foundation made this known on Sunday in a statement, a copy of which was made available to newsmen. The group further urged the court to compel the state government to give a detailed account of how such a huge sum of money in hard currency was collected in exchange for the poor Ibeju-Lekki people’s land, if Alhaji Dangote’s claim was true.
Additionally, the groups of indigenes also urged the court to compel the Lagos State Government to disclose which account the money was paid into and what it was used for.
The two applicants, De Renaissance Patriots Foundation and Ibeju-Lekki Peoples Forum, made the requests in the originating motion filed before the court, citing Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), and Sections 1, 3, 4, 7, 20, and 24 of the Freedom of Information Act 2011, joining Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and four others as respondents.
The four others are: the Attorney General of Lagos State, the State Accountant General, the Permanent Secretary of the Lands Bureau, Lagos State, and the Lagos State Government.
“The motion, filed and registered by the court with Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1603/2024 at 1:20 p.m. on Friday, September 6, 2024, is seeking the court to issue an Order of Mandamus against the respondents to compel the Lagos State Government to release the information required by the applicants,” the statement said.
Speaking immediately after filing the motion on Friday, lead counsel to the applicants, Barrister Yakubu Eleto Esq., alleged that the entire livelihood of the Ibeju-Lekki people was destroyed due to the siting of the Dangote Refinery without any compensation to the affected residents or host communities.
Eleto further recalled that former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola had, in 2015, publicly stated that the said land was given for free, with nothing paid for it. “However, recently, nine years later, Dangote claimed the land he used to build his refinery was not free but was paid for at $100 million.”
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The counsel lamented that the people of the area had suffered neglect for the past nine years, without compensation for their land. He emphasized that despite their poor background, they still had to pay for energy, and now they hear that about $100 million was collected for their land. “We want to know where that money is,” he stated.
The case is yet to be assigned to a judge.
It will also be recalled that De Renaissance Patriots, a group of prominent Lagos indigenes, had earlier written a letter to Governor Sanwo-Olu demanding this information on the compensation from the Lagos State Government. The group warned that if the government “chooses not to cooperate by not providing the necessary information, we shall have no other option but to approach the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or seek an Order of Mandamus against your government in a court of competent jurisdiction.”
“Your Excellency, based on the above legal positions, we hereby give you the next seven days, excluding the day this letter is received, to furnish the organization with the details of the proceeds from the purchase of the land by Alhaji Aliko Dangote,” the group said in the letter.
