Lagos State’s Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, on Wednesday said the government discovered 86 partitioned rooms, sized 10×10 and 12×10, under the Dolphin Estate Bridge, Ikoyi, on Lagos Island.

Tenants are said to be paying N250,000 per annum for the makeshift apartment under the bridge.

Wahab shared this information via a post on X.com on Wednesday, along with videos.

He added that the enforcement team of Lagos State’s Ministry of Environment and Water Resources had successfully removed all structures, including a container utilised for various illegal activities, from beneath the Dolphin Estate bridge.

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Sharing videos he wrote, “A total number of 86 rooms, partitioned into 10×10 and 12×10, and a container used for different illegal activities were discovered under the Dolphin Estate Bridge.

“They have all been removed by the enforcement team of the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources”

A Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Kunle Rotimi-Akodu, further confirmed the eviction of squatters from beneath the bridge towards Dolphin Estate in Ikoyi over illegal settlement and environmental violations.

Rotimi-Akodu mentioned that 23 individuals were arrested during the eviction, which was carried out by officials of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps, popularly known as KAI on Tuesday.

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He wrote, “Squatters dwelling under the bridge leading from inward Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi were evicted today Tuesday, 30th of April, 2024 by officials of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps LAGESC (aka KAI).

“These people created their illegal settlement under the bridge, thereby exposing the critical infrastructure to impending destruction. 23 persons have so far been arrested and MoE/KAI will continue to monitor the place. The law will take its course.”

He also confirmed that the bridge has hitherto housed 86 rooms, partitioned into 10×10 and 12×10 with squatters paying an average rent of N250,000 per annum.

“Continuation of the removal of abode under Dolphin bridge. 11 more persons were arrested. It is important to note that wood materials were used to construct the shelters, some occupants used gas cylinders, and some had stored fuel for their generators, these are recipes for disaster,” he added.

Watch video below courtesy The PUNCH

VIDEO: 86 rooms where tenants paid N250,000 a year found under Lagos bridge

Lagos State's Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, on Wednesday said the government discovered 86 partitioned rooms, sized 10×10 and 12×10, under the Dolphin Estate Bridge,… pic.twitter.com/cNq7Q0OuE2

— Punch Newspapers (@MobilePunch) May 1, 2024

An obsessed former police officer who caught his wife having sex with a married colleague in a car park has narrowly avoided jail after being convicted of stalking.

Gavin Harper, 45, found Stephanie Glynn, 40, and her lover Andrew McLullich, 42, outside the hardware store in Birkenhead, Merseyside, UK on February 16, 2021, after secretly placing a tracker on his wife’s car.

He slowly crept up to the vehicle and used his mobile phone to record the lovers, who were naked from the waist down, before allegedly shouting: ‘I’ve got you on film sh***ing my wife.’

The dad-of-two was found guilty of aggravated stalking, including secretly bugging Ms Glynn’s car, listening to her conservations, tracking her movements and taking her phone without permission.

He was also accused of assaulting Mr McLullich, a Merseyside Police Inspector, but was cleared of injuring the officer at Liverpool Crown Court as he claimed he only struck the policeman in self-defence.

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Prosecutors said it was Harper’s conviction was the end of the campaign of ‘obsessive, intrusive and unwanted behaviour’ against Ms Glynn from December 2020 to February 2021.

Harper and Ms Glynn met as Merseyside Police officers and were in a six-year relationship before they married in 2018 but she left the family home in December 2020 after she grew close to her work mentor Mr McLullich, an acting inspector at the time and formerly her supervising sergeant.

Giving evidence, Harper said he wanted ‘undeniable proof’ of the affair, which he said Ms Glynn had persistently denied.

His intention was to pass the video to police as evidence of two serving officers having an inappropriate relationship during Covid lockdown restrictions, he said.

On Monday, Judge David Potter sentenced Harper to two years in jail, suspended for two years.

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The judge told him he would have faced immediate custody but for the significant effect that imprisonment would have had on his elderly parents and youngest son.

Harper’s lawyers told the court that he would lose his security job if jailed and would be unable to make his mortgage payments. His parents, whom he informally cared for, would ‘not be able to cope’ and his son would have to give up his university studies.

Judge Potter told Harper: “I am sure you became obsessed to the point of criminality in stalking Stephanie Glynn to provide evidence of her affair to weaponise that against her for having that affair, and you also became determined to destroy the career of Andrew McCulloch.

“In that obsession the feelings, embarrassment and pain felt by Stephanie Glynn were collateral damage. You were more concerned about your own feelings and a raging sense of injustice.”

He said the events at Screwfix ‘do no credit to any of the people involved’ and the incident was ‘rash, foolish, selfish and unprofessional’.

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Judge Potter went on: “I am sure it has haunted them (Ms Glynn and Mr McLullich) and will continue to haunt them for many years.”

But he said their acts were ‘made worse’ by Harper filming them on his mobile phone.

He said: “It was a further gross example of stalking designed to maximise their humiliation to your advantage. Your conduct was intended to maximise fear or distress.

“You resorted to stalking out of a sense of vengeance for being the victim of an affair. I am sure the distress caused to your victim has been very serious.”

But he added that there was ‘another side’ to the defendant who had no previous convictions, and had suffered mental trauma himself.

Harper had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his Army service in the King’s Regiment and the Royal Military Police – before he joined Merseyside Police in 2001.

The Edo State governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, said he has recruited over 5,000 workers into the state civil service since the inception of his administration in the past seven and half years.

He disclosed this while delivering his good will message to the workers in the state to mark the May Day celebration.

Mr. Obaseki said he has been able to turn the fortune of the state and its worker around by keeping to his electioneering promises.

“One of the things I promised in 2016, is that I was going to build our institution for governance and today, we can proudly say that workers have had means to achieve the modest institutional reform which we have now achieved in Edo State.

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“With your support, we have been able to recruit over 5,000 new workers into the Edo State service based on merit and no longer on favouritism as it used to be.

“Now, you don’t have to know anybody to get work in government in Edo you just need to know something.

“You can celebrate that we now have the best public service training academy in West Africa. And this academy, John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy (JOOSPA) has trained over 10,000 workers who participated enthusiastically in our trainings.

“I have been amazed how workers in Edo State have embraced and adopted technology and how they have continued to use the application to rebuild the way we do things in government”, Obaseki said.

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The governor, while commending the cordial relationship that has existed between his government and the organized labour in the state, maintained that the labour has not gone on strike except the the ones called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) which the organized labour had to comply with.

He said his recent increment in the workers salary is one of his demonstrations of his commitment to their welfare, adding that he has already assured them that if the federal government increases its allocations to the state, he will also reflect it by increasing their salary too.

He thanked the organized labour for their cooporation over the years just as he urged them to sustain same.

On his part, state chairman of the NLC, Comrade Odion Olaye, thanked the state governor for increasing the workers salary and building them a befitting edifice in the state.

He said that the workers in the state will ever be grateful for him for providing a conducive working environment for workers in the state to thrive.