Groups, identified as De Renaissance Patriots Foundation and Ibeju-Lekki Peoples Forum, have dragged the Government of Lagos State to court demanding that Governor Sanwo-Olu provide details of the $100 million Aliko Dangote said he paid for the land he sited his refinery.
The suit filed and registered with suit no FHC/L/CS/1603/2024, at the Federal High Court, in Ikoyi, has Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Attorney-General of the state, the Accountant-General of the state, Permanent Secretary and Lagos Lands Bureau as respondents.
“According to the media office of the Renaissance Patriots Foundation, if the claim is true, the state government is required to give detailed account as to how such huge amount of money in hard currency was collected in exchange for the Ibeju-Lekki people’s land and why there was no public statement to the effect, and then to state which account the money was paid to and what it was used for,” The Guardian reported.
Yakubu Eleto, who is the lead counsel to the applicants, told The Guardian that “the entire livelihood of the people of Ibeju-Lekiki was destroyed by the mere fact of the siting of the Dangote Refinery without any affected resident/host communities compensated.”
He explained that “the people of the area had suffered neglect for the past nine years, only for them to now hear from Dangote that he paid $100 million for the same land they were not compensated for. We want to know where that money is.”
The case was filed on Friday (September 6, 2024) and will be assigned to a judge on Tuesday, September 10, 2024.
