Ejection: Tenants Seek Fashola’s Help

There appears to be respite for nine tenants at 34, Paul Okuntola Street, Idi Araba, Mushin, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, since they lost their belongings to fire in June 2008.

To compound their woes, their landlady, Alhaja Olabisi Ipaye Hussein, on Friday, gave them a notice quit the house within seven days.

The nine tenants, Olayinka Adewumi, Alhaji Sulaimon Akanmi, Mrs. Fausat Okelola, Alhaji Jimoh Obadara, Mrs. Ojepe, Mrs. Mariam Anjuwon, Alhaja Asimowu Badmus, Afeez and Alhaji Shehu Abdulrahaman, have appealed to Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, to save them from the embarrassment and humiliation from their landlady.

One of the tenants, 81-year old Alhaji Obadara, lamented that he lost belongings worth N250,000 to fire in 2008 and now that he has no money to rent a house, he is issued a quit notice.

Another tenant, Mrs. Okelola, 56, said she had lived in the house for about 10 years, lamenting that when the house was razed in 2008, there was no compensation to the tenants but in 2010, a developer came to the house, which gave the inkling that the house had been sold.

Another tenant, Ojepe said they learnt the landlady had sold the house for N6 million to Mr. Semiu Yinka Jinadu of King Land Properties. She said the landlady offered only four of the tenants N50,000 compensation each which they rejected.

P.M.NEWS gathered that the tenants have approached the Lagos State Ministry of Justice Citizen Mediation Centre three times since 2008 but their landlady failed to honour the centre’s invitations.

Contacted, the landlady, Alhaja Hussein, claimed that she was informed that since the fire gutted the house in 2008, many of the tenants have relocated and only four of them were left.

She admitted the house had been sold but said that her family was expecting the buyer to pay up balance.

She promised to pay each tenant in the house N50,000 to assist them to rent other accommodations but advised them to be patient with her.

—Ayodeji Dedeigbo & Ayoyinka Babade