Legal Battle Over Gbaja Boys High School Land in Surulere, Lagos
CASE BACKGROUND
Court: High Court of Lagos State, High Court No. 63
Case Number: LD/5840LM/2025
Date of Order: Tuesday, 27th January, 2026
Judge: Hon. Justice Y.J. Badejo-Okusanya
Applicant: Incorporated Trustees of Modupe Johnson Crescent Residents Association
Primary Respondents: Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) and 8 other Lagos State government agencies/officials
Legal Representation: I.O. Shitta-Bey (for Applicants)
Next Hearing: 27th February, 2026
INTERVIEW
1. ROOT CAUSE AND TIMELINE
Interviewer: Can you walk us through the root cause and timeline? When did you first learn of the alleged encroachment/construction, and what exactly happened first—survey markings, fencing, earthworks, approvals posted, or bulldozing? Take us through the key dates up to the night you decided to go to court.
Tunde Ajayi: It came to the residents as rumours in June 2025 which everybody dismissed, and so nobody reacted to the information until we saw peggings, mappings, and groundbreaking in September 2025. And we immediately wrote a petition to the governor dated 28th September 2025 which his office stamped received on the 30th. Same petition was submitted to various ministries and agencies related to development of new building projects.
After waiting for a month without a response from any of the offices we submitted the petitions to, we wrote a petition to the Speaker of the House of Assembly dated the 22nd of October 2025 which was stamped received on the 23rd.
On the counsel of our lawyers, we wrote to the various government ministries and agencies requesting them to show us the official approvals given by them for the project dated 3rd November 2025. This correspondence was followed by a press release.
It was after the above action that the Ministry of Justice acknowledged our letter of 3rd November with a letter dated 18th November with a promise to look into it.
Subsequent upon the above, we initiated a legal action to stop the construction, since none of the government agencies nor ministries nor the governor thought that our concerns were legitimate.
2. THE LAND: WHAT YOU CLAIM AND HOW YOU PROVE IT
Interviewer: What is the legal basis of your claim to the land in dispute—title documents, approved layout, surveys, excision, C of O, deed of conveyance, or historical allocation—and what part of the land do you say was infringed (boundaries, coordinates, landmarks)?
Tunde Ajayi: While we were engaging the government on the issues mentioned above, we understood that as much as we would want to question the government’s locus standi for converting the property, it is a more difficult legal mountain to climb. So we alerted the Baptist Convention informally and alerted them to their responsibilities to protect their legacy in education which government action would destroy. This action led them to demand that government reverse course or return the school to them for proper administration.
We are not familiar with the details of the claims they are making against the government, but we know that they registered their disapproval of the government’s efforts to change the use of the school premises from educational purposes to private housing units. And they expressed their willingness to challenge the government in court on the issues.
3. WHO IS BUILDING AND UNDER WHAT AUTHORITY
Interviewer: The court order lists multiple Lagos State agencies/officials and the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) leadership as respondents. Who do you believe is the real driver of the project on ground—LSDPC, a ministry, a contractor, or a private developer—and what evidence connects them?
Tunde Ajayi: The project was initiated by LSDPC. We understand that such projects are usually funded by private developers on behalf of that agency on a Private/Public Partnership basis, details of the arrangement of which we don’t know. They are the primary agency responsible for all the violations, but of course cannot operate alone. After all, it is an agency under the Ministry of Housing, which is under the governor.
The land should be under the custody of the Ministry of Education. Before another ministry can use it, the Ministry of Education is supposed to authorise a release, and this ministry equally reports to the governor. The same thing with all the necessary agencies overseeing safety and environmental compliance—they report to the governor.
4. WHY YOU CALL IT “ILLEGAL”: APPROVALS AND PLANNING COMPLIANCE
Interviewer: What specific legal breaches are you alleging—lack of planning permit, absence of building control approval, missing environmental approvals, unlawful change of land use, or disregard for mandatory notices? Which agency did you approach first, and what response did you get?
Tunde Ajayi: While we are confident that if the Baptist Convention does the right thing by seeking the return of the administration of the school to them for government breach of trust, they would be successful at that, because they own the school and possibly the land.
But as residents of the neighbourhood, we are concerned that no environmental impact assessment was carried out to know how the additional 80 units of housing apartments would affect us who are already there. The buildings are obviously too close to an existing canal which helps drain flood water in the neighbourhood when it rains. We believe the building, if subjected to the right inspection, should not be allowed to be sited that close to a major water canal.
At the basic level, it doesn’t have a building approval number, which means there was no building approval for it. It would be foolish of us not to challenge its construction when we can anticipate that apart from the challenges mentioned above, the buildings would add burdens to our roads, transformers, and the existing school, which would likely be removed—because it’s difficult to understand how noise-making children would coexist with 80 households which are likely to be making a lot of noise too, so one is likely to go for the other—and degrade our neighbourhood generally.
5. THE SITE LOCATION AND PUBLIC INTEREST ANGLE
Interviewer: The order refers to construction within Gbaja Boys High School at Modupe Johnson Crescent, Surulere. Why is that location central to your case—are you saying the school land is being converted, or that your estate land is being taken under the cover of “school property”?
Tunde Ajayi: The order stated it as it is. The building is inside the school premises. For context, the school land is not a university-sized land that can accommodate multiple purpose buildings. This is a typical township secondary school with about 1 acre space for experimental agriculture, or gardening, or kiddies recreation activities, or just leave it for the expansion of the school’s curriculum. Unless the government is surreptitiously pursuing an agenda to diminish education.
6. PRE-ACTION PROTOCOL: DID THE GOVERNMENT FOLLOW DUE PROCESS?
Interviewer: The injunction is tied to completion of “pre-action protocol.” Before construction began, were you served any legal notices—acquisition notices, gazette, revocation, compensation notices, or stakeholder consultation invitations? If not, why do you believe due process was breached?
Tunde Ajayi: The government and its agencies failed to address our concerns as stated above. They chose to ignore our concerns, while doing everything to fast-track the development. We thought the government governs for its people? Now it’s going to the court for the government to work for its electorate.
7. WHAT THE INTERIM ORDER ACTUALLY RESTRAINS—AND WHETHER IT’S BEING OBEYED
Interviewer: The judge granted pre-emptive injunction orders directing the 1st and 2nd respondents to stop work, restraining further residential development, and directing the relevant agents to seal the site, pending completion of pre-action protocol. Since the order was made, has work stopped and has the site been sealed—fully, partially, or not at all?
Tunde Ajayi: Yes, for the first time since we began complaining about the project, LSDPC seems to have obeyed an order to stop work, because all the various government agencies charged with oversight in buildings have tried in vain to stop them from construction in the past.
8. CLARIFICATION: LAGOS BUILDING SOCIETY (LBS)
Interviewer: You’ve mentioned Lagos Building Society in your description. What is LBS’s exact role—financier, proposed allocator of housing units, developer partner, or off-taker? Do you have documents, signage, correspondence, or public statements that show their involvement?
Tunde Ajayi: No, we mentioned Lagos State Building Control Agency and not Lagos Building Society. This is an agency of the government in the Ministry of Physical Planning that is supposed to ensure every construction site in Lagos meets every safety standard in the books.
9. WHAT YOU WANT THE COURT TO DO—CLEARLY AND SPECIFICALLY
Interviewer: Beyond stopping construction now, what is your endgame relief in court: a declaration of ownership/title, cancellation of allocations, demolition of structures, injunction against further encroachment, compensation/damages, or an order compelling proper consultation and lawful permitting? Which remedy is non-negotiable for you?
Tunde Ajayi: We want the court to ask the government to restore the school to its original state before any construction work started there. We did not ask the government for anything other than to improve the quality of the school. But since they cannot do that, they should restore the school to its state before they moved construction materials into it.
10. NEGOTIATION VS LITIGATION: WHAT SETTLEMENT WOULD LOOK LIKE
Interviewer: If the Lagos State Government and its agencies invite you to settlement talks, what conditions would make you suspend or withdraw the action—return of the land, redesign/relocation of the project, formal regularization with community consent, compensation, or a legally binding assurance about future encroachment?
Tunde Ajayi: We simply want everything back to where it was. If there should be a project approved in the school, it should be education-related like adding more classrooms, building water projects for the students, agricultural land/gardens, playground, research centre, or another school.
COURT ORDER SUMMARY
The Hon. Justice Y.J. Badejo-Okusanya granted all three pre-emptive injunction orders requested:
- Stop Work Order – Directing LSDPC to stop all work on the residential construction site within Gbaja Boys High School
- Restraining Order – Preventing LSDPC from carrying out any further development of the residential estate
- Sealing Order – Directing the Commissioner for Physical Planning (through the General Managers of relevant agencies) to seal up the construction site
All orders remain in force pending completion of pre-action protocol, with the case adjourned to 27th February, 2026.
