Working as a Commissioner for 12 years in Lagos State, the commercial centre of the most populous black nation was a financial windfall for Dr. Muiz Banire who early in 1999 struggled to become the Secretary to the Local Government (SLG) in Mushin where he hails from but hit dead ends.
His remarkable journey started when he was first appointed as Commissioner for Special Duties, and later Transport by the then Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Dr. Banire was also at a time Commissioner for Environment under the incumbent Lagos Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola.
Now Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Legal Adviser, the former Law lecturer in University of Lagos has made the most of the political offices he occupied at one time or the other. Heavily loaded, Banire made several acquisitions in Nigeria and abroad.
Sources told orijoreporters that one of his acquisitions, a 14 acres of land at Oke-Alo Gbagada in Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos State recently gone wrong when he was accused of illegal possession, and was dragged before a Lagos High Court by the land owner, a Lagos monarch, the Oloto of Otto Oba Ganiyu Odesanya.
In early 2000 there was controversy over the land between Lagos State Government and Oba Odesanya when the former sought to acquire the large expanse of land, which belongs to the Oloto Chieftaincy Family for the development of a millennium mixed housing scheme at Gbagada, and the Olotos turned to the law court for help.
However, the matter was later resolved out of court and the state government conceded the land to the Olotos. But there was another shock in store for the victors.
Their victory dance was cut short when Banire through one of his companies, Stardust Estate Limited entered the land, and started building a private estate. It was said that the National Legal Adviser of ACN dismissed all the great tact and diplomacy of politics, and allegedly mobilized hundreds of illegal security agents, OPC members and street urchins to the site to scare the Olotos away.
It was also alleged that Banire who is presently on a pilgrimage to Mecca for lesser Hajj (Umrah) connived with a new generation bank (name withheld) to forge a Certificate of Occupancy for the land.
The Olotos adopted the same approach to the land dispute. They went to court like they did against Lagos State Government. And last week the court gave the order to seal off the multi-billion naira estate.
