Dana crash: Winners' Pastor Seeks N45m For Destroyed Houses

A Pastor in the Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel), Omowumi Oluranti, has gone to court to seek justice, 13 months after his house was destroyed by the June 3, 2012, crash of a plane belonging to Dana Air.

He has approached a Lagos High Court, Ikeja, seeking N45m compensation from  the Lagos State Government for his houses that were destroyed by the crash and the land that was subsequently turned to a memorial site by the government without compensation.

All the 153 passengers on the ill-fated MD-83 plane and others on the ground lost their lives in the crash.

Oluranti’s four plots of land and the adjoining pieces of land were subsequently taken over by the state government and turned to a memorial site for the victims without compensation for the owners.

Built on the pieces of land before the crash, according to the claimant, were a six-bedroom duplex, a four-bedroom bungalow, two warehouses and a workshop.

According to him, the land was taken over by the government despite having the certificate of occupancy for the land. He said the said house was built on four plots of land at 8/10 Popoola/Olaniyi Street, Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos State.

The pastor stated that the government failed to respond to his January 25, 2013, letter that requested compensation for the revocation of his piece of land.

He said, instead, the government on May 13, 2013 “arbitrarily and illegally deployed workmen to the said property” to commence work for the memorial monument.

In his suit, dated July 23, 2013, the claimant, who attached the valuation report of the destroyed property, joined Governor Babatunde Fashola; the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye;  and the Commissioner for Lands as defendants.

The pastor, in the alternative, is seeking  to be allocated a fresh piece of land commensurate in size and location to him before the revocation took place and N20m as damages.

The state has yet to file its defence. The suit has yet to be assigned to a judge thus and no date has been fixed for its hearing.

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