Dozens of hoodlums were said to have attacked officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development in Ejigbo Local Council Development Area and Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area respectively.
As gathered, the officials were attacked during visits to the council for inspection of buildings that were reported to have contravened the Lagos State town planning law.
The Guild learnt that the hoodlums during the attack also vandalised the enforcement team vehicles and destroyed the seal placed on the building, indicating that the owners had violated the state law.
Sources narrated that trouble started in Ejigbo when the enforcement team demanded that the management of Revonia Oil and Gas station present an approved planning permit to indicate that the government approved the structure.
After the owners could not present the documents as demanded, the officials, it was gathered, sealed the structures, an act that was said to have angered the owners to invite hoodlums to attack the enforcement team.
The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Idris Salako, disclosed these when he led a team to re-seal the property and placed others sighted within the communities under seal for not having Planning Permit.
Salako, who stressed yesterday that under no pretext should anyone attack State Government Officials on duty, hinted that Renovia oil and gas station was still unable to produce the enabling Planning Permit and was thereby re-sealed with a promise to sanction the promoters of the outfit and prosecute those that perpetrated the violence.
He said: “We have said repeatedly that breaking of enforcement seal is a serious infraction of the law which Government will not tolerate, while we will come down heavily against acts of violence against Officers of the State”.
The commissioner urged residents of the State to respect the Physical Planning Laws of Lagos State, refrain from erecting buildings without Planning Permit and ensure that they build by the Rules to achieve an organised, orderly, livable, and sustainable physical environment.
