The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners has called on the general public to patronise and consult town planners on physical developments in order to achieve orderly and organised communities.

Chairman, NITP, Ayo Adejumo, made the call at the recent Annual General Meeting of the organisation.

He said, “There is a saying that when we fail to plan, we plan to fail. Most of our cities and towns have failed in terms of everything because they were not planned.

“Our new developing settlements may suffer the same if necessary development plans were not prepared to control their physical development and growth.

“The general public should not leave urban planning and development to the government alone.”

Adejumo also commended the Lagos State Government for its efforts to make Lagos a resilient city in Africa through the initiatives, strategies and operations of the planning agencies.

He stated, “Our cordial relationship with the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development yielded good fruits when it made the Lagos State Government engage 75 of our graduate members into its workforce.”

Adejumo advised the management of the Department of Petroleum Resources to desist from illegal action of usurping the power of the Lagos the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, adding that the developers needed to obey urban planning regulations of the state.