• APC legal adviser cries wolf where there is none
• State commissioner calls his bluff, dubs him a ‘childish’ liar
If he were livestock, Muiz Banire, would probably be a peacock. The former Lagos commissioner, like the flightless bird, is so stuck up on ego and his position as the All Progressives Congress (APC) legal adviser, that he may have begun to over-estimate his own worth. Pundits dismiss his persistent bickering and recent offensive against the Lagos government as one of his unfortunate tantrums.
It is apparent by his recent tantrum that Banire, a two-time Lagos commissioner, considers himself a repressed martyr. Hence he sees conspiracies where none exists. For instance, he recently accused Lagos government of persecuting his mother in a personal vendetta against him. Banire alleged that his only offense was that he insisted that the APC observed the rule of law in its proceedings.
Banire who is on holy pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, claimed, in a recent press statement, that he was informed on Tuesday of a contravention notice served on the residence of his 90-year old mother, Sarat Banire, at 24A, Remi Fani-Kayode Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos by officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development.
The notice, he said, contained a demand that his mother should, within 24 hours, provide the planning permit obtained before the building was constructed.
The contravention, he added, also contained a threat that his mother’s two-bedroom bungalow will be demolished within 48 hours of service of the notice.
But the Lagos government in a swift response, branded Banire a liar, claiming that it never served 48-hour demolition notice on his mother’s property.
A statement issued by the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Wasiu Anifowoshe said Banire was just being childish in whipping up sentiments in respect of his aged mother.
The statement held: “The State Government wishes to state without equivocation that not only is Mr. Banire trying to be clever by half, but is being childish in whipping up sentiments that his dear aged mother is the target of the said demand for development permit and that the said property might be demolished in 48 hours.”
According to the statement, the contravention notice served Banire’s mother was part of several sent out on Wednesday November 15, 2017 and served on properties identified by state agents as operating without due permits.
It said 27 properties were indeed served on that same day, 13 out of which were located on the same Remi Fani-Kayode Street in GRA, Ikeja, where Banire admitted his property was located.
“There is no way Lagos State would have had a pre-knowledge of the owners of the properties in question let alone targeted the one that Banire has identified to be his own”, the statement said.
It added that aside the 13 houses affected on Fani-Kayode Street, there were a few others in Ikeja GRA and the rest in Ikoyi and Yaba.
Despite the Lagos government’s prompt explanation, Banire holds to his belief claiming that the threat of demolition within 48 hours was inspired by nothing other than vendetta.
At the backdrop of the crisis, pundits and party members urge Banire to tow the humble path of truth and sincerity and quit spreading falsehood and misinforming the public. Several party members, including Banire’s close associates, are of the opinion that, he is simply haunted by his past actions, particularly his betrayal of the man who picked him up as an underpaid lecturer and turned his life around by making him a two-time Lagos commissioner, Bola Tinubu.
It is an open secret that Banire is having a running battle with Tinubu, who is a national leader of the APC and his estranged political godfather.
Sources close to Banire and his estranged godfather said that Banire became too rich and thus misunderstood his worth and actual status as a political featherweight.
Critics of Banire’s outburst also reminded him of the massive demolition exercises he superintended while he was Lagos commissioner. They accused him of ruining several indigents’ lives courtesy the demolition of homes in several parts of Lagos, particularly in Alimosho local council area where the exercise led to untimely death of most of the victims.
