Femi Falana SAN, a human rights attorney, has blasted the Lagos State Government for enforcing the setback parking tax in the state.
On Sunday, Falana referred to the practise as unlawful and urged the state government to immediately discontinue it.
In a letter to the food and snack company, the Lagos State Parking Authority declared that it had taxed the company N290,000 for the parking lot outside the company’s premises.
In accordance with the letter, the food establishment was required to pay a non-refundable administrative processing charge of N50,000 as well as N80,000 annually for each of the three parking lots.
The Peoples Democratic Party, among others, criticised the action, calling it a scheme to use residents’ money to “support the egotistical ambition of one guy who had held the state and its people by the jugular.” Other people and organisations also opposed the action.
The agency’s general manager, Adebisi Adelabu, called the accusation “reckless and mischievous” in a statement and pointed out that the agency was created in 2019 by an act of the state assembly and the Lagos State Transport Reform Law to oversee parking operations and change the state’s parking culture by enacting policies that adhered to international parking standards.
Falana, however, claimed that the Lagos State Parking Authority was unlawful because, under the contemporary democratic system, the state government lacked the constitutional authority to create a body for the management of parks.
According to Section 7 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, as amended, “Local governments have the only constitutional authority to develop and operate automobile parks in any of the federation’s states. Additionally, as the House of Assembly may specify, it is the sole responsibility of local government authorities to build and maintain parks, gardens, open spaces, other public facilities.
The human rights attorney claims that the House of Assembly improperly established the Lagos State Parking Authority to oversee parks and gardens in the state rather than dictating how local governments should manage parks and gardens.
He claimed that because the Lagos State Parking Authority was an unconstitutional institution, it lacked the authority granted by the state constitution to set and collect parking fees from people in “any manner whatsoever and howsoever.”
