Fashola Orders OPD To Sue NSCDC

LAGOS — Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State,
Tuesday gave a marching order to the Office of the
Public Defender, OPD, to take legal action against the
Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps NSCDC, for
allegedly arresting eight residents of Ejigbo Local
Council Development Area LCDA, whose wells were
found to have been polluted by oil spill from the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC pipeline
in the area.
It would be recalled that NSCDC officials, last week,
allegedly invaded the buildings at No.17 and 30 Aminatu
Ilo Street, in Ejigbo LCDA, and arrested eight persons,
including a landlord and his wife, a pregnant woman on
the suspicion that they dug their well to the level of oil
pipeline which runs through the area.
The governor through the Commissioner for the
Environment, Tunji Bello, had, weekend, condemned the
alleged unwarranted arrest and urged the victims to
institute legal action against NSCDC.
he underground well polluted with fuel at Ejigbo Local
Council Development Area, LCDA.
He noted that the “illegal arrest” was carried out
without proper investigation.
However, Fashola, who frowned seriously at what he
termed “indiscriminate arrest of innocent citizens.”
A team of the OPD, led by its Director, Mrs. Omotola
Rotimi, visited the affected area on Monday to interact
with the people arrested by NSCDC.
She also faulted the arrest, disclosing that the governor
had directed OPD to take up legal action against the
NSCDC, explaining that OPD had since secured the
release of the arrested persons, but would be suing for
damages.
The OPD director spoke with the owners of the two
houses who claimed that they informed Ejigbo Police
Station when they first noticed that substance
suspected to be fuel was coming out of their wells
instead of water.
They claimed the Police took them to NNPC office to
make an official report, stressing that NNPC officials
came to take samples from the well and sealed it off
with the promise that they would return on Monday,
August 26, 2013.
But on Saturday, August 24,according to them,NSCDC
came to arrest them and all pleas to them that the
matter had been officially reported to the appropriate
quarters fell on deaf ears.