Lagos govt locks up buildings, shuts tenants in

Officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency have sealed five buildings on Allen Avenue , Lagos .
It was gathered that the officials stormed the buildings around 9 am on Tuesday for alleged contravention of the state laws .
Some of the tenants were reportedly locked up , while others could not get out of their property before the buildings were shut.
The government agency was said to have shut the buildings for their conversion to commercial use .
One of the tenants, Thomas Ogundipe , however , said the buildings were built for both residential and commercial purposes.
Ogundipe , who claimed to have been a tenant in one of the buildings for 35 years , said , “ This building has been here for the past 40 years and I have been here for over 35 years . When Mama Tejuosho built this place in the early 80 s , she also built it for commercial purposes. ”
One of the tenants allegedly locked up in one of the buildings , who identified herself only as Mrs Onuh, said she was traumatised by the experience.
While speaking to our correspondent on the telephone , she stated , “I am surprised about the situation I find myself . I just returned from overseas where I lived for 30 years . I invested everything that I have in this place and I ’m completely shocked and traumatised that this is happening . Since when this happened , we have completely lost business because people don’ t want to come to a place that is sealed up. ”
The caretaker of the buildings , Gbenga Ilesanmi , who also claimed that the property was for commercial purposes, said he was surprised by the development .
The Public Affairs Officer of LASBCA who simply identify himself as Mr. Gbade denied that the agency locked up residents in the building .
He said , “ It is not possible for our officials to lock people inside the buildings ; if we want to lock up a building , we usually tell the occupants to move out .
“ We are enforcing the auditing result carried out on all the structures in Lagos . The approval got for some of the buildings were residential , but they were converted to commercial purpose .
“ What the agency is telling them is to come and regularise the process and get approval for commercial purpose . ”