2nd December, 2010
Igando-Ikotun Grade B Customary Court had ordered closure of two houses in Abaranje, Ikotun, Lagos State. The houses are located at 22 Folaye Street and 4 Olaoluwa Street, Abaranje.
The owners and occupiers of the houses were dragged to court by the Alimosho Local Government health officials.
They were arraigned on a six-count charge which include failure to keep the surrounding clean, failure to repair collapsed soak-away pit, failure to repair damaged pit toilet, failure to patronise the PSP refuse collectors and that the building is not fit for human habitation as it can collapse at any time.
According to public health sector law 160 of 1994, Section 8, (2), a nuisance order may be an abetment order, a prohibition order or a closing order or a combination of such orders.
Also, subsection 4 of the same section stipulates that a prohibition order may prohibit the recurrence of the nuisance. Subsection 6 also gives the court the power to decide on what to do to the house after they had visited the place and found out that the house was unfit for human habitation. This the court had done and found it unfit.
The prosecutor, Mrs. D. O Akinola, requested that the occupiers of the house at 4, Olaoluwa Street, Abaranje vacate the premises to avoid any calamity. The prosecutor also requested for a closing order.
Four occupiers of the house including the owner were present while two others were absent. The prosecutor asked for a court order to seal the rooms of the two occupiers absent and one of them was a man known as Baba Sodiq who works at Alausa, Ikeja as a driver. He was to be arrested and brought before the court.
The court ruled that the house should be closed by 13 December, after which anyone found in the residence will be arrested. The landlord was given 60 days to finish the building with standard building materials.
The landlord is to show evidence of completion of building to the court before allowing tenants into the house.
—Kemi Aroyehun