Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana SAN, has lambasted the Lagos State Government over the implementation of the setback parking levy in the state.
Falana on Sunday described the policy as illegal and urged the state government to withdraw it without delay.
The Lagos State Parking Authority had in a letter addressed to the food and snack company stated that it had charged the firm the sum of N290,000 for the parking lot outside the business premises.
According to the letter, the food company was directed to pay N80,000 per annum each for the three parking lots, as well as a non-refundable administrative processing fee of N50,000.
But the move attracted a backlash from different individuals and groups, including the Peoples Democratic Party, which described it as a plot to milk residents to “finance the individual ambition of one man who had held the state and its people by the jugular”.
In a statement, the General Manager of the agency, Adebisi Adelabu, described the allegation as reckless and mischievous, adding that the agency was established under the Lagos State Transport Reform Law 2019, and an Act of the State Assembly in 2019, to manage parking activities and change the parking culture of the state by implementing policies that were in line with international parking standards.
But Falana said the Lagos State Parking Authority was illegal as the state government lacked the constitutional competence to set up a body for the management of parks under the current democratic dispensation.
“By virtue of Section 7 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, it is the exclusive constitutional responsibility of local governments to establish and maintain motor parks in any of the states of the federation.