Tearful Christmas as victims of Olokonla Gardens Estate demolition recount ordeal

Today is Christmas. Nigerians across all divides are in such a celebratory mood you can almost touch the frenzied atmosphere. The joy is almost contagious. Not even the economic hardship in the country can stop the celebration.
But there is a group of Nigerians for whom the thought of Christmas merriment and New Year celebration is the least on the minds. They are residents of Olokonla Gardens Estate in Lagos whose houses were demolished on December 16 by officials of the state government. For these people, there is neither joy nor celebration this Christmas. They are count their losses.
BDSUNDAY learnt that on that fateful Friday, four bulldozers escorted by soldiers descended on the estate located near the Lagos Business School in a ruthless exercise that saw the demolition of over 200 buildings, out of estimated 1,000 buildings. Buildings valued at over N15 billion were reduced to rubble while property owners who dared to protest were rough-handled and brutalised.
Sharing their pains with our correspondent, some of the affected residents lamented that the demolition has dislocated their families as family members are now scattered all over the country for want of a single abode that can accommodate the entire family. They also lamented the loss of their household property to miscreants in the area who scavenged on leftover items like toilet seats, doors, roofing sheets, among others, which they sold to cart-pushers who deal in scraps.
Tales of military brutality
Benjamin Owolabi, one of the landlords whose 7-bedroom duplex located at No. 5 Benjamin Owolabi Street was affected, said the brutality of the soldiers and mobile policemen prevented the affected residents from moving in to pick up their leftover household items.
“They were abusing and arresting ordinary civilians and inflicted physical injuries on many of them. An area commander was there and shots were fired. When you experience something like that you have to leave, that is why we were not there to guard our remaining property,” Owolabi said.
“No one would stay back after such bitter experience. They were stopping and beating people for taking pictures, owners of homes. We only managed to keep our families somewhere so that the children would not feel the impact too much,” he said.
Owolabi, who said he was only trying to put himself together and then know exactly what next to do, narrated that one of his greatest concerns in the aftermath of the demolition was where to squeeze in all his property taken from such a large apartment.
“I have three kids to take care of. You can see how people can be very wicked and yet hide under government. I don’t believe Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is aware of this because they are only doing this in his name. No responsible government would do this to its people,” he said, fighting back tears.
The Genesis
According to Owolabi, owners of the demolished houses bought the land from indigenes of the place, otherwise known as “Omooni le”, who had submitted to them evidence of efforts they were making to regularize the documents.
“We bought the land from the villagers who have been living in Ogombo for only God knows how long; they have been living there like forever. All along, we heard that the New Town Development Agency (NTDA) came around to regularize the place. We were actually in court and the court said that everybody should wait and restricted NTDA from carrying out anything,” he said.
He further explained that Lagos State officials first came to paste “intervention” notice on some of the buildings five days earlier. Three days later, demolition notices were pasted on buildings and in the next two days, caterpillars were brought to the community and buildings were ground to dust.
Owolabi wondered why government officials would demolish houses built on land they intended to resell, arguing that it would have been wise for government to ask those already on the land to pay for the land rather than demolishing property worth billions of naira.
“The land would still be sold to people. Billions of naira has been wasted. You saw it yourself; what better structure can be erected? We did the roads ourselves, put streets light and other infrastructure all by ourselves. But all the government could do is just come and demolish it. The land is not reserved for hospital, military or any of such venture that is for public interest,” he said.
He disclosed that from his knowledge of the matter, certain individuals in Governor Ambode’s government were using their position to secure land for themselves, alleging that the governor may not even be aware of the dastardly act being done in his name.
“I will say this demolition is done by government and I will say again it is not done by government. It is just people using their office to carry out this kind of dastardly act. A sincere government would only come to regularize whatever has happened, not demolish property worth billions of naira. I wouldn’t want to say outright it is government because this is not the way government handles issues. It is an individual thing, and that individual has got a lot of money and he is going to pay back. So, there is no two ways about that. He’s got all the weights to be able to withstand this kind of thing. I am very sure Governor Ambode did not give such order. These are individuals and private developers,” he alleged.
He noted that the landlords had already informed their lawyers and Ademola Kazeem Alimi, who represents Eti-osa Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, to present the matter to Governor Ambode to first ascertain whether the governor authorized the demolition.
“We have raised a petition and we are expecting to hear back. We have also informed the Nigeria Police in Onikan, Lagos. We will not keep quiet because we intend to get to the root of the matter. We need to first establish how appropriate it is to do this kind of thing,” Owolabi said.
Efforts to reach Ademola Kazeem Alimi, under whose constituency the demolition took place, were met with brick wall as he did not answer countless calls to his mobile phone. He also had yet to reply text message to him on the subject. But some of the community leaders alleged that Alimi may have been compromised by the gladiators who demolished the houses.
John Egaji, assistant pastor, In His Presence Christ Tabernacle Church, said the church building, whose blocks were partly demolished, was completed and commissioned in August this year. The senior pastor and other members of the church, he said, were yet to recover from the shock of the demolition.
“Everything happened like a dream. We bought the land from the owner of Joniagh Hotel and he gave us Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) of the building. We don’t have any issue with the person who sold the land to us. The land was sold in the name of government. All the activities lined up for Christmas and New Year here have been cancelled as a result the demolition,” he said amid tears.
Olakunle Bakare, head of one of the five families that originally owned the land, told BDSUNDAY that the demolition was a surprise to the land owners because the now disputed area was a settlement of their forefathers centuries back.
“Many generations have come and gone before it came to our turn. While we were happy because of the joy of the coming New Year, that was the time that NTDA came and started marking buildings and we asked what happened. They said they have allocated the land to one Kamoru Ganiyu Bolarinwa and we said this land belongs to us and is not a place we can give to anybody. This is the heritage our fathers left us and we are indigenes of this place, not foreigners. Where are they now going to take us to? We don’t know whether they want to take us away from our source,” said Bakare.
“So, we went to court to seek redress as responsible citizens. We are in court even as this is taking place. The court has already told them not to trespass or do anything. Our case is slated for February 4, 2017, but they quickly came to paste notices. We went to Alausa to report and we were told the matter would be looked into. But two days later they were already here with soldiers after six days’ notice, and demolished buildings worth billions of naira. Members of my family were still in my building when they started demolishing it. I was thoroughly beaten because I protested that they should wait for my family to move out. Even when we were in military government we did not see this kind of brutality; but sadly, civilian government is now worse,” said the elderly man who spoke in Yoruba language, his eyes full of tears.
He explained that when the community leaders saw that the number of soldiers brought was too much, they went to police to report the situation but policemen who came were embarrassed by the soldiers who were ready to kill anyone who dared stand on their way.
“We were surprised to see how the soldiers were beating house owners like animals; even those that went there to see what was going on were beaten to a pulp,” he said.
Family dislocation
Bakare said the demolition has dislocated affected families as family members are separated and scattered in different places for want of a single accommodation that can accommodate all of them.
“At the moment, there is no peace between husbands and wives and children and parents because they are scattered all over the places. The situation would be worsened when the holiday is over and the children want to return to school. Some of the women are pregnant,” he said.
“We are begging government to help us because we don’t understand what is going on. The fact that they chose to carry out this act at a time things are very tough in the country further traumatized those affected. The properties destroyed here are in billions of naira. I am not sure this kind of thing happens in other states except Lagos. What happened affects our spirit and our future and even the future of our children,” he said.
Way forward
When asked what amicable consensus he would want the government to reach with the affected landlords since the damage has been done already, Bakare said the first thing was for Governor Ambode to pay a personal visit to ascertain the extent of the damage and to assure the people that he is a responsible governor who will not tolerate anarchy under his watch.
Speaking on the recurring land tussles between indigenous people and government, he said there was nowhere it was written that land everywhere belongs to government, arguing that even when land was left in government’s care by the people, it does not automatically make the latter exclusive owner or give it a right to oppress the former.
“The owners of land are always the owners, but the problem is that it is the government itself who says when they want to take from the land, they need to see the community who owns the land to discuss percentage to be given or benefits like free education for our children, and they must give compensation for the part they want to use. But they don’t do that again; they are taking it from us by force and selling it.
“Government is only using power to oppress when they do as they are doing now. They are only using government to cover up; they are taking it from us and selling it to their children in America and UK. That is what they are doing. If government has record on how they are selling our land, they should bring it out for all to see whether they are using it to assist the country. There is nothing like that, they are just sharing the land among themselves,” he fumed.
He said government continued to grab land belonging to the people because many do not know their right and additionally, citizens have the tendency to back out easily from any issue once government is mentioned.
The families that are direct owners of the land who are involved in the tussle, according to a document seen by BDSUNDAY, are Bakare Odedina, Orebiyi, Seidu Ogunleye, Idowu Bakare, and Amojo Useni. These five families make up the Olokonla Town via Ogombo.
Legal perspective
Oladotun Hassan, principal partner, Jury Associate Chamber (Oladotun & Co), said the properties were illegally demolished after “hurriedly and ill-motivated prepared contravention and notice issued by the office of the Commissioner, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban was pasted within 48 hours on the 8th of December, 2016 precisely, with an immediate matching demolition order through the marking with red painted inscription”.
Hassan, who is also assistant secretary, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Epe branch, informed that the legal team has written to Governor Ambode to immediately set up an independent commission of inquiry, as well as a request for urgent visitation to assess the extent of damages and onward intervention, immediate amelioration and investigation for prosecution of those involved.
“This is premeditated heinous crime intentionally committed amounting to continuous degradation and violation of fundamental human rights, intimidation and unwarranted harassments via sporadic shooting, well-marshalled attacks and assaults on helpless and innocent citizens, resulting to grievous bodily harm leaving many injured, with bruises resulting from the metallic objects and horse whips (leather and wire koboko), while those that managed to take shots were gruesomely beaten blue and black. Most painful was that I witnessed this erroneous crimes committed in the broad daylight uninterrupted, perilous times tribulations best interpreted as double jeopardy, while others scampered for safety, leaving behind aggravated sorrows, tears and blood, unprecedented tales of woe, irreparable psychological and physical damages, grave agony and monumental disappointments in a state highly referred to as Centre of Excellence,” he said in an interview with BDSUNDAY.
He said the demolition gang was led by a person who identified himself as the Operation Team Head and admitted to him (Oladotun) that he was acting on the authority of Governor Ambode.
“They were aided by countless numbers of fiercely looking thugs and 40 men of the Nigerian Army armed to the teeth led by Captain Yusuf, who brought in a mounted General-purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), along with his private red painted Honda Pilot jeep marked with registration number AKD 47 EJ,” he informed.
According to him, based on preliminary findings, the owners of the houses are compelled to seek the governor’s urgent intervention and prosecution on the “clandestinely motivated and premeditated grand conspiracy and willful destruction of all the fully developed properties and well-furnished buildings; and site, in total value worth of over N15 billion”.
“We are in custody of vital information leading to the facts relied upon. Part of it is that the said land in dispute is subject of litigation and adjudication at an ongoing court processes, with file suit number: LD/0911MW/2015. This contravenes the rules of the court amounting to vilification and contempt of court. This singular illicit act is subjudice and usurps the role of the judiciary, in contemplation of the derogatory dispensation of flagrant abuse of the executive powers capable of undermining the independent powers of the judiciary as the last hope of the common man, by playing gods and willfully destroyed and demolished the subject of determination before a substantive judgment is delivered by the current presiding judge, Justice Olokooba of the Epe Judicial Division of the Lagos State High Court processes filed by both parties to the suit,” he said.
He said the officials involved in the demolition are Kamoru Ganiyu Bolarinwa, managing director, Gannybol Nigeria Enterprises; Bode Agoro, permanent secretary, Lagos Land Bureau; Aina Ololade Salami, executive secretary, Land Use and Allocation Committee; and Hakeem Muri Okunola, former permanent secretary, Lagos Land Bureau.
He said Fatai Owoseni, Lagos State Commissioner of Police, is fully aware of the matter because the area commander who was beaten at the scene briefed him, and in turn the police boss asked the victim to report to the GOC 81 division to unearth the soldiers who were used for the demolition.
Government response
Bode Agoro, however, denied the allegation that he personally supervised the demolition, saying that the job of demolition belongs to the Ministry of Physical and Urban Planning, not the Ministry of Land where he is a permanent secretary.
He also faulted the claims by both the indigenous people and those that bought the disputed land from them that they were only given a six-day notice before the demolition, saying that they took government’s patience for granted.
“These are the same people who built without building approval. They built on government land and refused to move after repeated notices. Imagine somebody like you, buying land from government with CofO and you cannot move there because Omooni le would not allow you come near! You will definitely call government a fraud,” Agoro said.
“That was exactly what happened. This is a land government has already given to another allottee and the allottee cannot go near it. The Omooni le have finished selling the land government gave to them and they started selling government’s own,” he told BDSUNDAY in a telephone chat.
He explained that the disputed land was not experiencing its first demolition exercise and that the immediate past government of Babatunde Fashola had carried out similar exercise twice for the same reason, adding that if not for the sake of the members of the public, government would have been fiercer in handling the issue.
“Jubril Okelowu is the one that is selling the land to them and police are looking for him. We have told the people that before buying any land, go to the government to get original information about the land before making payment. But they continued to buy such land because they sell it to them at a very cheap price,” he said.
When asked if the owners of the affected houses would be compensated for their losses, he explained that he could not categorically say so, while informing that the possession of documents such as building approval would be an advantage for those hoping to get respite from the state government.

 

NATHANIEL AKHIGBE