A coalition of former allies, proteges and admirers of the late legal icon Gani Fawehinmi on Friday rallied his family, calling on the Lagos State Government to demolish a three-storey building in Ikeja GRA, which they say endangers his family home and legacies.
The imposing structure, a white-painted apartment building named Mercy Place, stands directly in front of the Fawehinmi family home with little to no setback from the property’s fence.
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Speaking on the platform Justice for Gani, the group, Mr Fawehinmi’s group of former associates in his fervent freedom and anti-corruption campaigns, alleged that the developers violated Lagos State’s urban planning laws and ignored repeated warnings about the dangers posed by the building.
The members of the group include Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) Femi Falana and Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika. Among them are also Adindu Ugwuzor, Richard Akinnola, Edetaen Ojo, Bayo Alabidun, Lanre Arogundade, and Femi Aborisade.
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Mr Fawehinmi, a veteran human rights lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner, died on 5 September 2009 aged 71, after a lifetime of battling for civil liberties and enduring arrests, detentions, and harassment from military regimes.
‘The hotel must be demolished’
At a press conference held on Friday in Lagos, days after Mr Fawehinmi’s 87th posthumous birthday on 22 April, Mr Olumide-Fusika, speaking for the group, said the building must be pulled down for contravening key provisions of the Lagos State Building Law and Physical Planning Permit Regulations.
He said the building failed to observe the mandatory minimum of three metres of airspace or setback from adjacent properties, as stipulated by the 2019 Lagos State Planning Permit Regulations.
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The 2019 regulations define a “building setback” as the distance between the building and the property boundary, while “airspace” refers to the clearance on the right, left, and rear sides of a structure.
For residential buildings, the minimum side and rear setback is three metres. In cases where buildings exceed four storeys—as in this instance—the required distance between two such structures increases to at least six meters.
“This building was erected in blatant disregard for these rules, and we have on record several attempts to alert the authorities and the developers. This gathering marks the beginning of a series of actions we may be compelled to take to ensure justice is done,” Mr Olumide-Fusika said.
Safety concern
The group noted that Mercy Place has already caused several safety incidents, including the collapse of a 1,000-litre water tank from the hotel into the Fawehinmi compound—on three different occasions.
“Only providence has so far prevented fatalities,” the statement read. “We do not want to wait for a tragedy before taking action.”
They also raised the alarm over the security implications of the building, saying the building’s commercial nature—functioning as a short-let apartment—exposes the family home to potential threats from unknown individuals.
Speaking to journalists further on the matter, Mr Falana and veteran journalist activist, Mr Arogundade, said the Fawehinmi family has documentary evidence of how debris from the hotel construction damaged vehicles and littered the compound.
Mr Olumide-Fusika added that all correspondences with the hotel developers, including warning letters, are in the group’s possession.
He said the activists only became aware of the building during a recent visit to Mrs Fawehinmi.
Fawehinmi’s legacy
The coalition described the structure as both a structural and symbolic affront to the memory of Mr Fawehinmi, who dedicated his life to the fight for human rights, justice, and democratic freedoms in Nigeria.
“It is unacceptable that a man who gave so much to this country cannot be allowed to rest in peace, while his family continues to face distress and danger in the home he left behind,” the statement said.
Earlier in his opening remarks, Mr Falana emphasised that the protest was organised to demand accountability and ensure that urban development laws are enforced.
He added that the Commissioner for Physical Planning in Lagos State has taken some steps including marking the hotel.
‘No comment’- Facility manager
On Saturday, PREMIUM TIMES visited Mercy Place apartments to seek reaction to the coalition’s allegations. But the bid was unsuccessful.
Private security guards at the gate denied our correspondent entry. Instead, they offered to call the facility manager, identified as Mr Yinka, on their phone to let our correspondent speak to him.
Speaking with our correspondent, Mr Yinka said he had no comment.
“I can’t speak on the building because I was not there when they were developing the apartment,” he said.
Gani’s lifetime battles
Mr Fawehinmi, an uncompromising advocate for democratic rule and rule of law, lived a life totally dedicated to fighting for for justice and against abusive governments, at the expense of his freedom.
He stood against corruption, human rights abuses, and killings associated with the various military and civilian regimes.
Mr Fawehinmi, fondly called Gani, fearlessly criticised and protested against the military regimes and civilian administrations, leading to his incessant detentions in different prisons in the country during his lifetime.
He was endeared to many Nigerians by his pro-poor disposition, and always defending, free of charge, the weak and the poor in battles against the powerful and the rich.
He fought countless legal battles in court in pursuit of his conviction.
For over two decades, Gani fought hard to hold then-military president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and key officials of his regime accountable for the death of iconic Nigerian journalist Dele Giwa, who was killed through a parcel bomb on 19 October 1986 in Ikeja, Lagos State. Mr Babangida has consistently denied having a hand in Mr Giwa’s death.
He also fought a titanic legal battle against then Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu and future Nigerian president over his Chicago certificate saga in the early 2000s.
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The battle his former allies and followers are fighting for the protection of his family home strikingly resonates with such endeavours Gani undertook free-of-charge for diverse people while he was alive.
In 2003, Gani contested the presidential election, campaigning on the platform of pro-poor welfarist programmes, which he had demanded from successive Nigerian governments for years. He lost the election to the incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose government Mr Fawehinmi was unsparing in criticising over wide-ranging issues of bad governance, corruption, and abuse of powers.
Tragedy struck Gani’s family in 2021, when his first son, Mohammed Fawehinmi, died of an ailment.
Wheel chair-bound Mohammed, who died at 52 in August 2021, was a chip off the old block, joining anti-government protests and issuing public statements on different occasions to advance some of the causes his late father championed.
Memorably, years before his death, Mohammed filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Lagos to compel the government to stop bomb blasts in the country by holding those who were responsible for the 1986 killing of Mr Giwa through parcel bomb to book.
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