A Lagos-based marine transport company, Tarzan Marine Enterprises, has reached out to the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode for intervention over alleged takeover of its jetties by the Lagos Waterways Authority (LASWA).
Last Saturday, officials of the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) reportedly demolished the operating offices of Tarzan Marine Enterprises, at Queens Drive, Ikoyi.
This came after the Managing Director of LASWA, Ms Abisola Kamson, in a press statement in Lagos last week, said that Messrs Tarzan was served an eviction notice on its operation in Ijede and Badore jetties.
The firm sought the intervention of Governor Ambode through its lawyer Ebun-Olu Adeghoruwa, in a petition over the alleged invasion and forceful takeover of Tarzan jetties by state officials.
The lawyer, in a letter dated June 20, asked the Lagos governor to prevail upon the state’s agents, saying that the invasion of his client’s property was unlawful, especially as the control of the waterways was still a subject of litigation between Lagos State and the Federal Government.
According to him, Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court had in a judgment on March 28, 2014 declared that “the Federal Government of Nigeria is vested with exclusive power by the 1999 Constitution to administer activities within the coastal waters and the inland waters of Nigeria”; a judgment which Lagos State had however appealed.
Adegboruwa said, “Whilst that appeal is still pending before the Court of Appeal, officials of the Lagos State Waterfront Ministry and the Lagos State Waterways Authority, with armed policemen, swooped upon the Ikoyi jetty of our client, on Friday, June 17, 2016.
“There was no prior notice of this invasion. All efforts made by our client to verify the cause of the sudden invasion were rebuffed, as the invaders claimed that they were acting on the orders of His Excellency, the Governor. …Read More
Source:: Nigerian Pilot
