STATE PROPOSAL TO REBUILD GENERAL HOSPITAL TEARS SOMOLU L.G STAKEHOLDERS APART – Rights Monitors
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The recent request by the Lagos state government from Somolu Local Government on ceding of the Local Government Secretariat land to the state government for construction of a befitting and standard General Hospital for Somolu Community has resulted to serious controversial issues among the major stakeholders in Somolu.
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Right Monitors gathered that a monitoring team from Alausa to Somolu General Hospital on Tuesday 13th, April 2021 confirmed that the state government has given a marching order for the Local Government to vacate the land presently occupied by the Local Government, for the development of the Hospital as requested by the Human Rights Monitoring Agenda, HURMA (HURMA Global Resource Initiative) during its last protest.
The information around the Lagos State proposal to acquire the council land led to an urgent stakeholders meeting which almost ended in disarray in the council secretariat. This urgent stakeholders meeting with the Chairman of Somolu Local Government was also extended to the HURMA office to send representative.
Theme: “Ceding the current Local Government Secretariat with Land to the Lagos State government for construction of a standard General Hospital.”
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All these was as a result of the last protest by Human Rights Monitoring Agenda (HURMA Global Resource Initiative) on the agitation to rebuild Somolu General Hospital which was taken seriously by the State Government. The Lagos State House of Assembly later set up a committee on the matter and a meeting was later held where HURMA was given the complete assurance that the matter would be attended to and HURMA’s genuine agitation for the poor community would be addressed by governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The Somolu stakeholders meeting held at the council secretariat on Wednesday, 14 April 2021 almost ended in serious fight.
In attendance at the meeting were Hon. Sallaudeen Dullar, Executive Chairman of Somolu Local Government; Hon. Olowo Rotimi, LSHA Somolu Constituency 1; some past local government administrators; Balees (community head) State Hospital Management Rep; Representative from Somolu General Hospital and some other concerned CDA and CDCs representatives.
The council Chairman, Hon. Salawudeen opened the meeting with a proposal for the community to support the giving away of the legislative building in the council secretariat to the hospital project instead of ceding the whole land of the secretariat.
Some people rejected vehemently the idea that the land of the secretariat should be used for a general hospital. Apostle Peter Oyelusi (leader of APC in Shomolu) claimed that ‘Shomolu local government secretariat is the heritage of the people’ hence it cannot be used for general hospital. They were of the opinion that the government should look for alternatives elsewhere around Shomolu Local Government. A representative said ‘alternatives should be considered like Ijebu-Tedo primary school or the land that belongs to Shomolu LG that has been encroached somewhere around Bolaji Ogunpo’.
Osha a former sole administrator of Shomolu LG also proposed that UNP school should be used for the general hospital.
Some respected members of the community held strongly to the position that the General Hospital should be given priority over other projects.
Honourable Gbenga Abdulai (a.k.a Na Gbenga) was of the viewpoint that the State government should acquire the secretariat to build a general hospital. According to him ‘life is more important than office’. He added that ‘the general hospital is the most important thing to everybody’. A member of the hospital board shared the viewpoint that ‘”if Shomolu does not seize this opportunity of a general hospital now, it will lose it forever”.
