Falana Scolds Lagos Government, Says Public Agency, LASPA Lacks Legal Power To Collect Parking Fees

The Lagos State Government has commenced the collection of levies for cars parked outside the perimeter fence of companies.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has insisted that the Lagos State Parking Authority (LASPA) lacks the power to fix and collect parking fees in the State.

The Lagos State Government has commenced the collection of levies for cars parked outside the perimeter fence of companies.

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In a letter dated August 15 and sent by LASPA to Nellies, a food and snack company, the agency charged N290,000 as the annual fee for the parking lot on its setback.

A setback is a minimum distance from a property line to which a building must be set back from a street or road.

Falana earlier described the policy as unconstitutional and urged the state government to withdraw it without delay.

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But the state government defended the levy collection, saying it is constitutional. 

“The Lagos State Parking Authority Law, 2018, empowers the local government and local council development areas in Lagos state to assign their powers in respect of collection of fees relating to parking to the state government,” Adebayo Haroun, Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos commissioner for Justice had said”.

“Accordingly, by a mutual agreement, the local government areas and local council development areas in Lagos state have assigned their powers to the state government to collect fees on parking in Lagos state.

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But in a statement dated September 1, 2022, Falana, citing judicial references, fired back at the state government, saying it lacks the power to carry out such function.

The statement read, “our attention has been drawn to the press statement entitled ‘Lagos Parking Levy is Constitutional’ dated August 29, 2022, wherein Mr. Adebayo Haroun Esq, the SSA to the Honourable Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Lagos State attempted to justify the power of the Lagos State Parking Authority to collect parking levy in respect of parking spaces in Lagos State.

“In the said press statement, Mr. Haroun stated that the Lagos State Parking Authority 2018 ’empowers the Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas in Lagos State to assign their power in respect of collection of fees relating to the State Government.’ In support of his argument, Mr. Haroun referred to the case of Ola Animashaun Harimot Oluwabukola vs Attorney-General of Lagos State & 5 Ors in Appeal No.  CA/L/1046 delivered on 19th November, 2018 where it was held by the Court of Appeal that the intendment of Section 1(3) of the Land Use Charge Law of Lagos State is ‘to give powers to the Local Government to permit a contractual relationship between it and State on the collection of taxes.

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“It is curious to note that Mr. Haroun did not refer to the more relevant case of Airtel Nigeria Limited v Attorney-General of Lagos State & 3 Ors (2019) 1 NCLR 1, where the Court of Appeal held that it was unable to agree with the appellant that the 3rd Respondent (Eti-Osa Local Government) does not have power to make law that relates private parking since there was nothing in the bye-law that is inconsistent with Section 7 and Paragraph 1 of the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution.

“However, with respect to the case of Ola Animashaun Harimot Oluwabukola v. Attorney-General of Lagos State & 5 Ors (supra), the Court of Appeal did not pay attention to the case of Knight Frank & Rutley Nigeria Limited V. Attorney General of Kano State (1998) 7 NWLR (PT 556) 1 at 24 where Kutigi JSC (as he then was) stated as follows:

‘The Court of Appeal must therefore in my view be right, when it opined thus

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Could the powers of the State and Local Government Councils to order for valuation of rateable hereditaments co-exist and be complimentary? I believe that once the State passes legislation assigning the functions of valuation of tenement rates to the Local Government as the Constitution has directed, only the Local Government Council will have the power to deal with that subject. The State has no power to deal with the matter and the Local Government Council cannot, even if it wants to, divest itself of those powers’.

“In view of the authoritative pronouncement of the Supreme Court on the illegality of usurping the powers conferred on Local Governments by State Governments, it is indisputably clear that the Local Governments cannot be legitimately divested of the powers conferred on them by Section 7 of the Constitution to fix and collect parking fees in Lagos State. Accordingly, we are compelled to urge the Honourable Attorney-General to prevail on the Lagos State Parking Authority to desist from fixing and collecting parking fees in Lagos State.

“While we hope that the salient issues raised herein would be given the required attention, please Honourable Attorney-General, accept our warmest regards.

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Credit: Sahara Reporters 

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