Ex Super Eagles Captain, Kanu Nwankwo’s Hotel Shut Down By Lagos Officials

Kanu Nwankwo’s Hardley Apartments, a hotel located at Victoria Island has been shut down by the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA). 

Kanu Nwankwo

While reporting, Punch said the hotel on was shut down on Monday with some other hotels and worship centres on the grounds of air and noise pollution.

Areas affected in the cause of the operation includes Surulere, Victoria Island, Ketu, Ikorodu and Ibeju-Lekki involving about 30 facilities.

LASEPA in a statement said that the owners of the facilities had been contacted several times in the last one year but they ignored the instructions given.

Reports states that Hardley Apartments had the large exhaust pipes of its generating sets which power the hotel face the road. One of them was tested in accordance to the directive given by Kayode Bello, the Director of Enforcement and results showed it gives off thick gaseous emissions.

Bello retreating said: “Even the sound is going to be more than 45 decibels at night. We want you to comply ─ that is the reason we are here. We have been on this for more than a year.”

Rasheed Shabi, GM LASEPA at a press brief said, “The environment belongs to every one of us. Lagosians need to live in peace. A survey was carried out by an international organisation and it was discovered that 60 per cent of Nigerians have hearing problem. LASEPA, in the last two to three years, has been conducting surveys on religious houses, and our findings revealed that 95 per cent of them do not have approval to operate in Lagos. Most houses and club houses do not have fiscal planning approval. Before you can build any hotel anywhere in the world, there must be an environmental impact assessment. Most of the markets we have in Lagos State; we have people using trucks to sell their products with speakers to disturb the peace of Lagosians. Soon, we will tow as many trucks as possible to get them off the streets.”

Shabi made known that defaulting owners of the places shut down would sign an undertaking that they would comply with instructions meant to clean up the environment. In his words: “After today, the enforcement unit will go round. Anybody that breaks the seal has violated the Lagos State law. We will then involve the Ministry of Justice.”

The other affected amenities are: Rain of Power and Miracles Ministry Church, Lekki; Christ Apostolic Church, Lekki; Duckland Hotels and Suites, Ikorodu; and Mela Rossa Club, Victoria Island.

Souce: The Punch