Seeks governor’s intervention
Human rights activist, Femi Falana, and the family of Nigeria’s foremost labour leader, Dr Michael Imoudu, have rejected the offer of N23 million as compensation over the land allegedly taken over by Lagos State Government, estimated to be valued at not less than N250 million for a plot.
Falana, in conjunction with another labour and human rights lawyer, Femi Aborisade, and the Imoudu’s family, raised their voices at the 20th posthumous anniversary of Dr Michael Imoudu, at the weekend, in Lagos, where the Federal Government, top labour functionaries, trade union veterans and labour activists all gathered to celebrate the late icon.
They alleged that the state government acquired the land, located around Ojuelegba in the heart of Surulere, in the public interest to build a bus terminal.
Falana said that they rejected the offer “because it is not in line with Section 44 sub-section 1 of the Constitution, which provides that in a compassionate acquisition of anybody’s property, you must pay just and fair compensation. On that basis, we have gone to court.”
He, therefore, urged the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was represented at the event by the Commissioner for Establishment and Training, Afolabi Ayantayo, to intervene in the matter.
According to him, the government and the family should use the land to build an emolument like a labour museum and be named after the late Pa Imoudu, as he is fondly called.
Similarly, speaking on ’20 Years after Pa Michael Imoudu – Personal Reflection: Dr Veronica Omosun-Imoudu, also renewed the appeal of the Imoudu family to Sanwo-Olu to allocate an alternative land for their father’s land in Ojuelegba, stating that they intended to use the land to build a labour museum of Pa Imoudu, “but the state government is offering us a N23 million compensation for a land valued at almost N300 million.
“We had written an appeal to Governor Sanwo-Olu, which was received and stamped in his office on November 15, 2024. In it, the Imoudu family had appealed to him for the allocation of an alternative land where we can build the Michael Imoudu Labour Museum,” she said.
