The Lagos State government said on Wednesday that the controversy over a property on No 3A Sasegbon Street, Ikeja GRA, is a tussle of ownership on a government property between an “interloper and the Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly,” and has nothing to do with the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode
It, however, said that its decision to respond to Kayode Tejuosho’s statement with regards to property was to avoid the public misinformed by his ‘befuddling statement.’
A statement by Steve Ayorinde, Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy said that being neither an official of Lagos State nor the purported beneficiary of the government property, “we ought not to dignify Mr. Kayode Tejuosho’s befuddling statement to the press with a response.”
Ayorinde, however, stated that the matter in question does not involve the governor’s office as being erroneously alleged but a tussle of ownership on a government property between an “interloper and the Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.”
He said that though a couple has stepped forward to claim ownership of the said property, the action is a misdirected claim as the couple did not make any purchase on the property.
He said that the company that made the purported purchase did so in error and is yet to step forward to challenge the cancellation of the purchase since the company, “a certain Debam Mega Solutions which paid only a portion of the offer price never compeleted payments on it that would have entitled its full take-over and access to Certificate of Occupancy. The incomplete payment has since been refunded to the company and the property retrieved so that it can continue to serve as the official quarters of the Deputy Speaker of LAHA.
The statement said that while government acknowledged a form of monetisation policy that allowed certain levels of government officials and political appointees to purchase official quarters in their individual capacity on owner-occupier basis, this policy, it said, was never extended to companies like Debam Maga Solution which being no government entity could not have legally made a bid for a government property.
The statement further claimed that the names of the two directors of the said company are never Lagos State officials and therefore urged the media to investigate the names of those directors with the Corporate Affairs Commission whether the company is owned by the Tejuoshos or not as claimed by the husband.