The Lagos State Government has given traders and other illegal occupants around the newly constructed Ojo General Hospital seven days to vacate road setbacks and spaces reserved for public infrastructure, warning that enforcement action will follow the deadline. The ultimatum was issued by the Lagos State Informal Space Management Authority during a sensitisation and enforcement exercise around the hospital perimeter along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, near the LASU-Iba Road Junction, on Monday.
The exercise was part of a wider campaign to reclaim road setbacks and statutory corridors from unauthorised occupation across the state. Speaking after the exercise, the General Manager of LASISMA, TPL Daisi Oso, said the immediate concern was the extent to which activities around the hospital had encroached on spaces intended to support the operation and accessibility of the public facility.
According to a statement, “the initiative was necessary to reclaim setbacks around government institutions and restore such spaces to their intended purposes.”
Oso said the area surrounding the hospital had been taken over by activities including “illegal dumping of refuse, an unauthorised fruit market, public toilets, a planks market, and shanties by illegal occupants”, which he described as incompatible with the status and purpose of the facility.
He warned that the continued occupation of the setback could have consequences beyond physical planning, particularly for public health, security and access to the hospital. According to him, “the encroachment will adversely affect physical orderliness, public health, and security around the hospital.”
He particularly stressed the need to preserve unobstructed access to the hospital, noting that restrictions around the facility could become critical when ambulances and other emergency vehicles need to reach patients quickly. The LASISMA boss said the state government had therefore directed the ministry, through the authority, to reclaim the affected spaces and return them to their designated purposes.
The recent operation focused initially on persuasion and formal notification rather than immediate demolition, with LASISMA officials sensitising occupants and serving contravention notices on structures and persons found to be occupying the spaces unlawfully. Oso said the notices carried a seven-day compliance period, after which the government would proceed with further enforcement.
“Today’s exercise focused primarily on sensitisation and serving contravention notices, giving affected occupants seven days to vacate the encroached areas, after which further enforcement action would commence,” he said. He added that the encroachment was not limited to isolated portions of the hospital frontage, saying “the entire perimeter of the Ojo General Hospital had been affected by encroachment” and that notices were being served on all identified illegal occupants within the affected areas.
The intervention also signals a broader attempt by the state to prevent newly developed public infrastructure from becoming surrounded by informal commercial and residential activities that could undermine its functionality. Oso said the government planned to redevelop and properly manage the spaces around the hospital after the illegal occupations had been cleared, with complementary uses planned to improve the facility’s surroundings and functionality.
He urged traders and other occupants to comply with the notices, stressing that setbacks and spaces reserved for public institutions could not be converted to private commercial uses. The authority said the Ojo operation formed part of a state-wide campaign to protect public setbacks and statutory corridors from informal occupation. The exercise was supported by town planners from the Technical Services Department of the ministry, the Office of Physical Planning and LASISMA officials.
LASISMA, according to the statement, is responsible for regulating, coordinating and managing informal urban and incidental open spaces across Lagos, including ensuring that spaces designated for public infrastructure remain available for their intended purposes.
