Mrs Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf, Lagos Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture
… As FCTA removes illegal structures in Apo Resettlement***
The Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, will on Sept. 21 launch the “Q4- Lagos Initiative“ meant to improve awareness of local tourism potential in the state.
Mrs Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf, the Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, in a statement on Sunday, said that the initiative would be launched in collaboration with stakeholders in the tourism, hospitality and creative subsectors.
She said that it was also meant to promote traditional activities that abound in the state, especially during the ember months.
The commissioner said the ministry recognized the need to leverage on the need for domestic tourism and encourage Nigerians to take their vacation within the country.
She noted that the ‘Q4-Lagos Initiative’ was inspired by the famous slogan “Eko For Show”.
According to the commissioner, this should be seen as a call out to the global industry that Lagos is ready to entrench its prime position as the destination of choice for tourism.
“The objectives of the initiative include selling Lagos to the world through a designed permanent merchandising, marketing social platform to optimize revenue generation opportunities for the economy.
“To also collate comprehensive data of events during the holiday period and determine the number of inbound tourists for the industry while maintaining standards to meet global quality demands,” she said.
According to Akinbile-Yusuf, the concept is expected to deliver high value for fun lovers.
She said the ministry would partner with relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to encourage more Lagosians to partake in the various events put together by private organizers.
“For us to deliver on this mandate, all event organizers are expected to get a clearance from the Ministry of Tourism without paying anything to enable the government to plan and monitor these events,” she said.
In the meantime, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Department of Development Control, on Sunday removed illegal structures on major road corridors and inside cashew plantations within Apo Resettlement in Abuja.
The newsmen report that the FCTA city management officials, accompanied by security personnel stormed the area with bulldozers for the operation.
They dislodged hundreds of artisans, food vendors and petty traders for allegedly operating in structures that encroached on road corridors thereby constituting public nuisance.
Newsmen observed that most of the affected structures built on road corridors and cashew plantations near Urban Shelter and Angwan Tiv were marked for demolition since 2021.
Addressing newsmen at the scene of the demolition, the Director of the department, Alhaji Murktar Galadima, explained that the operation that targeted shanties and other structures constituting infractions in the city followed due process.
Galadima described as ”greatly disturbing and major infractions”, the conversion of cashew plantations into trading and residences, as they served as safe heavens for criminals.
” As part of our process for demolition, we have to issue notices, which could be by way of marking and written notices.
“So, we are on our weekly clean-up exercise to clear shanties and other illegal structures in the city.
“The cashew plantation in Apo resettlement is overtaken by activities of some persons offering catering services.
”But from credible intelligence, what was happening was beyond eatery, as after sometimes it goes into criminality,” he said.
According to him, ”the general warning is that we will go about removing the cashew plantations because they are now giving those into criminality safe heaven to operate.”
The director said that the department had concluded arrangements to start removing the cashew plantations in the area and other places.
” We are having new strategies now to make sure that any person trying to go contrary to our regulations will be prosecuted accordingly.
”This is unlike before when we will just demolish and go.
“Residents should see us as partners, so they should always notice and report some of these infractions to us, to enable us act swiftly.
”This will also help to save the city from security challenges, ”he said.
