The Lagos State Government (LASG), on Wednesday, dismissed what it termed false alarm being raised in some quarters over parking levy by its Agency, the State Parking Authority (LASPA), saying rather, the development was designed to eliminate indiscriminate levy collections.
This was just as the state government maintained that LASPA was empowered by law to collect park levies in the state.
It will be recalled that a post had recently gone viral on social media, stating that LASPA issued a letter signed by its General Manager, Mrs Adebisi Adelabu, levying a Lekki-based company a total sum of N290,000 for the parking lot outside their premises.
The State Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Frederick Oladeinde, made this clarification at a press briefing which took place at Alausa, Ikeja, saying that against the erroneous claims of certain individuals and groups, LASPA had the power to collect park levies in accordance with the law setting it up.
“As it is usually the case, especially in a political season, political jobbers and people with limited knowledge on the constitutional mandates of LASPA have tried fruitlessly to exaggerate the issue by playing to the gallery,” he said.
The commissioner, while further clarifying the situation, said the idea that informed the creation of the agency was to put an end to impediments arising from indiscriminate parking and collection of levies, describing LASPA as “a one-stop authority, providing solutions to parking challenges across the state.”
According to him, LASPA was created to find lasting solutions to the issues of indiscriminate and illegal parking across the state, saying it was established to aid the prompt reduction of traffic gridlock experienced by everyone by removing all “impediments arising from indiscriminate parking on carriageways, thereby increasing the carriageway capacity on the roads, improving the flow of traffic and reducing travel time.”
Besides, Oladeinde said LASPA also had the mandate to charge fees on private commercial parks, non-commercial parks and other parking lots on any facility provided by the agency, positing that against the exorbitant cost commuters bear on stopovers with the usage of commercial parks, LASPA levy was low and considerate.
“Let me emphasise that most private commercial parks charge the Lagosians between N500 to N1,000 parking dues per hour and each person parking at these respective parks can have 4 stops over which sums up to N2,000 or N4,000 daily.
“At the end of the year, the commercial park owner will realize over N182,500 or N365,000 if charges are per hour or gain a total of N730,000 or N1,460,000 for 4 stopovers. This is the price most Lagosians pay to commercial park owners.
“LASPA levy of N80,000 divided by the number of days in a year result to N219 only against the above charges of commercial park owners.
“The difference is clear as the government is quite considerate and responsive in making the environment conducive for all,” the commissioner stated.
“As a government that respects the constitution as the sole source of its engagement with the public, the state government will never resort to any unconstitutional means in its dealing with the people,” he assured.
Oladeinde, therefore, enjoined Lagosians to cooperate with LASPA and other similar stakeholders in carrying out the assigned mandate, just as he implored interested and concerned members of the public to visit the agency’s office for necessary information and assistance.
The State’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, said the claims that the government was to levy people for parking in their private residence was a craft of falsehood.
“It is not true, it is an attempt to malign the government by mischievous people. We are not surprised to see things like this because we are in the season of politics. When it comes to this kind of matter, everybody seems to be an expert, everybody seems to be a lawyer,” he said.
The General Manager, LASPA, Mrs Adelabu, said the state government was moving to the level where every developer/builder must accommodate park provisions in their building plans before construction.
Adelabu said the agency had been engaging with religious organisations and businesses on the need to establish parks for their worshippers and customers, adding that the need to reorder indiscriminate collection of levies for parking was important to channel the funds into infrastructure to solve existing problems in the state.
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