The Federal Government has ordered an immediate suspension of all land allocations and reclamation activities along the Lagos Lagoon shoreline, including Banana Island.
The suspension is among sweeping reforms the government has adopted to restore order and curb environmental degradation along the nation’s coastline and other areas. The move followed a directive from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who mandated the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to streamline shoreline development processes and ensure compliance with approved urban plans.
In response, the minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, has constituted a Joint Technical Inter-Ministerial Committee(JTMC), to review, examine, and harmonise all approvals and developments along the shoreline and ensure proper documentation, eliminate abuse, and align all activities with the Federal Government’s urban development goals.
A statement by the minister in Abuja said, all existing approvals issued by the ministry for the issuance of Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) must henceforth be submitted to the Federal Controller of Housing in Lagos for verification and record-keeping and ongoing applications or attempts by allottees to extend land into the lagoon, particularly on Banana Island, must stop immediately.
