Some residents and business owners across Lagos have called for the probe of the Director-Generals of the Lagos State Safety Commission, Lagos Internal Revenue Service and Lagos State Signage Advertisement Agency, over what they describe as ‘rip-off’ by the agencies through different conditions and levies imposed on them.
Investigations revealed that the development was as a result of the inability of some residents and business owners to meet certain standards of the state government, which many of them described as unreasonable and unrealistic.
owners of buildings without safety plans, gadgets, first aid, and signs, are sanctioned with fines. after negotiations and payment, the officials never went back to the site to confirm if their recommendations were met
Some of the aggrieved residents and business owners claimed to have written several letters to Governor Akinwumi Ambode, demanding explanations for the justification of the agencies’ unfriendly rates/charges, multiple levies and taxes, and unrealistic recommendations, but that it would seem that the governor simply ignored them or their letters were prevented from reaching him.
LSC
One of the Administrative Officers of an industrial plant along Agidingbi Road, Ikeja, who prefered anonymity, disclosed to our correspondent that the immediate past DG of the Lagos State Safety Commission harassed her organisation with some policemen, threatening to shut its factory due to lack of safety gadgets, signs, plans, among others.
He said, “Following the harassment, the former LSC DG introduced his private firm to us for the supply of the equipment he claimed we didn’t have. We thus paid his firm over N5 million to supply us the equipment and the commission didn’t come back to verify the installations. Surprisingly, when a new DG assumed office, his men visited our factory for another round of inspection and some of them said that the tools/gadgets were not really up to international standard, asking us to do another safety plan.
“This time, the lady that led the team argued that our safety plan, which was supposed to remain valid till we expand the factory or workforce, was outdated, that we needed to get another one and the commission could do that for us at a cost of N350,000, apart from the honorarium. I was shocked when I found that the plan was not different from the old one.”
According to him, the team was supposed to verify if the recommendations made in the plan were carried out or not, but they never did.
“What they are interested in most times is money and not the implementation of the safety measures in factories,’’ he added.
A property developer, Mr. Segun Oloyede, whose skyscrapper at Ikoyi was served a ‘stop work’ notice by some officials of the LSC in May 2017, lamented the operations of the commission, saying it seemed to have taken safety business with levity.
He particularly alleged that the state government, through the commission, did not have the intention of inculcating safety measures in builders, but instead, was using the innovation to rip off builders across the state.
He further alleged, “Its operations are more like a scam and should be probed. Much of the money collected is shared among the officials, though owners of buildings without safety plans, gadgets, first aid, and signs, are sanctioned with fines. After negotiations and payment, the officials never went back to the site to confirm if their recommendations were met.
“For the officials to help you to write the plan, which indicates and guides on how to go about the safety precautions at the building site, and provide safety measures, the officials charge as much as N1 million, depending on the size and value of the building as well as the owners’ bargaining power. The first time I had an encounter with them, I was asked to pay N50,000 each for nine floors; and N350,000 for the plan. I purposely didn’t implement the recommendations, thinking they would come back, but they
did not.”
LAWMA
The complaints are not limited to builders and property developers alone, some operators in the service sector also recounted their ordeals.
For instance, the Head of the administrative department in one of the service firms along Falomo road, Ikoyi, lamented over the operations of some officials of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, especially as they affected companies located in Lagos Island.
According to him, the agency gives some firms outrageous bills for disposing their waste every month.
He said, “Before November 2017, we were billed N40,000 for waste collection rates but we were shocked in January 2018, when we got a notice from LAWMA that the bill had been reviewed and increased to N240,000. The agency claimed that our monthly waste had increased between November and December, which was not true as we did not do anything to increase our waste.
“We set up a panel to investigate and found it was a scheme by the agency to exploit firms, who ordinarily won’t complain. After several meetings with the officials, the bill was reduced to N140,000 every month. The officials attributed the development to the increase in the cost of tools used and maintenance of vehicles.”
LASAA
A Chief Executive Officer of an advertising agency, Mr. Ayo Ogunyemi, told our correspondent that despite the difficulties facing business owners in Nigeria, both LAWMA and the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency were not helping matters as they reviewed their charges by over 100 per cent or more, depending on the size of the firm and the bargaining power of the owners.
He added, “While LAWMA recently increased our waste collection rate from N30,000 to N100,000 without prior notice, the states’ advertising regulator loaded us with excessive charges that have eaten deep into the fabrics of our operations.”
“It is no longer news that the advertising sub-sector has financial crisis, which made many of us to consider merger and acquisition with foreign counterparts. We have had several failed merger talks with some Turkish and Canadian agencies due to the unwary attitude of LASAA officials that sent wrong signals to our foreign investors. Since 2010, we have been battling unfriendly agency rates imposed on us and it is all to no avail.”
LIRS
An impeccable source in the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria told our correspondent that each of the five major telecommunication firms paid an average of N120 million to the state every month.
The telcos described some of the states’ policies, especially on tax issues, as unfriendly, adding that they were capable of frustrating operators.
The Vice President, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, 9mobile, Mr. Ibrahim Dikko, once told our correspondent that the firm was not expanding because state governments’ agencies saw telecom operators as cash cows as they imposed high Right of Way levies on them.
He said, “There had been an agreement between the operators and state governments on the amount to be charged per meter for RoW, which was N145/m. But now, only five states
adhere to that agreement as other states now charge as much as N5,000 per meter. How will an operator cope, especially one that has the intention of expanding services across a particular
state?”
The President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Olusola Teniola, said that the burden on the telcos would affect their contributions to the Gross Domestic Product and would slow down the movement of the sector going forward.
“The state can support the sector in the area of spectrum management and their agencies should not see us as people they can just latch on and make quick money from whenever they are broke or given targets,” he said.
However, efforts to confirm the allegations from the state government was frustrated as the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kehinde Bamgbetan, failed to respond to the correspondent’s e-mail and messages.
