A former Minister of Communications, Retired Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, has debunked claims that the stretch of land where on which Oriental Hotel is presently on the Lekki-Epe Expressway, was a dump site.
In a documentary by the APC Campaign Team on achievements of the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu, as governor of Lagos from 1999 to 2007, Tinubu was quoted to have said, “I brought private investors, hospitality- they created the boat club, the Civic Center that is of great value to many people today-that was a refuse dump.” “Nobody would easily remember that Oriental Hotel was a refuse dump, a mile of refuse along that corridor. It took several months of escalating and a great investment for those investors to take the risk. The majority of those assets they claim are mine are not mine.”
General Olanrewaju said, the first civillian governor of Lagos State, late Lateef Jakande, opened the lekki-axis from Maroko to Epe with the construction of two-lane roads. He said late military governor Gbolahan Mudashiru extended the development to Epe.
He said: “Of course, as the governor of the State from 1999 to 2007, the administration of Bola Tinubu added one lane to the existing two and erected a toll gate to generate revenues.”
“The general upgrades that attend the continuous service improvement on the Lekki & Eastern Corridor is a combined effort, which has evolved over time and leaders at every stage of their engagement have added to the Lekki peninsula.”
General Olanrewaju in a statement, said part of the land on which Oriental Hotel is located was allocated to a company called Kembu by the Federal Government.
The statement reads: “I will not indulge myself in the ownership of the Oriental Hotel located along the Lekki Road axis. But it would be of interest to the public that the part of the land upon which the property is located was allocated to a company called Kembu by the Federal Government.”
“I acknowledge an intimate relationship with this company. I’m still in possession of the Certificate of Occupancy issued to Kembu by the federal government. It is the lack of respect for the law by the lagos State authority that deprived Kembu of the property. It is simply a land grab.
“It is a law long gazetted by the federal government that 100 meters to the shore line is a federal controlled asset. This still subsists.