A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has warned lawyers to desist from assisting clients to punish landlords.
Falana issued this warning on Sunday at the advocacy program themed, “Building Collapse and Application of Punitive Laws in Lagos State,” organised by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Ikeja Cell, which was held in Lagos State.
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He said, “I want to warn lawyers, do not assist clients to punish landlords. Somebody came to my office yesterday, he lost a case at the Magistrate court and wanted to appeal, I asked him if he had been paying his rent, and he said he had not paid his rent for the past two years, so he wanted me to appeal for him knowing that the case would go there.
“For us as lawyers, we must be very careful, so that we are not agents of impunity. What they now do in Lagos, out of frustration, they go to the Ministry of Environment to complain that the building would collapse, and officials who would not do their investigation would now put some notice there, citing the building for demolition, to the end that tenants can find their way, some landlords also pay to have the roof of a house remove in order to chase away the tenant.
“Again, it is important to get the approval of the Ministry of Physical Planning before doing anything to your house, approval is essential because the adjustment you are carrying out may be dangerous to the community, hence you cannot dig a borehole or cut a tree in your compound without an approval.”
