Once upon a time, a community in Igbogbo-Bayeku, Ikorodu, popularly known as Twenty-four, was a peaceful settlement. Its people lived a comfortable life with flourishing businesses enough to make a living.
They were a happy people with a “respectable” traditional ruler. But when the state government struck with a “sweet plan,” for relocation to a more conducive environment, all that vanished.
In December 2017, the Lagos State government stormed the community to demolish houses in order to pave way for the rehabilitation and expansion of roads in the Ikorodu West and Igbogbo/Baiyeku Local Development Council Areas (LCDA).
BDSUNDAY garnered that a week’s notice of evacuation was issued to residents, but the demolitions began before the notice elapsed.
Some residents told this reporter that the demolitions began three days after the notification. Others said it was within the fourth and fifth days.
“The Ijoba (government) came and said they wanted to do the road, and that we should allow them to clear some places that the road is going. After that, they gave us seven days. But before you know it, five days, they came and started demolishing the houses,” said Adeshina Adekunle Ojoye.
Recounting the event which rendered many homeless, Ojoye, a metal bender, told BDSUNDAY that the people of the community did not resist, nor argue with the government officials.
“No one fought with them, they allowed them to do what they wanted to do,” he said.
This was probably due to the promise made by the government to compensate those affected- a promise which they swallowed in good fate.
“The government said they would compensate us for the demolition. But it’s two years now, and we are still expecting the government to pay our compensation and make us happy, but nothing,” he further said.
In Igbogbo, it is common to see houses built with shops. As a result, affected residents did not just lose shelter, but also their means of livelihood as BDSUNDAY learnt.
“I am just hanging around. I found a place to keep my things. As I speak now, my wife and children are not with me because I don’t have a place to stay with them. I don’t have money to rent an apartment.
“Someone borrowed me a room where I’m staying now, and because I can’t stay with my wife and kids, I scattered (separated) all of them. My load too, I scattered everything,” Ojoye said.
The loss is huge for some residents. While Ojoye lost his six-rooms-and-two-shops apartment, Temitope’s loss was a big deal.
“Out of ten rooms, and two shops, they demolished six rooms and the two shops. This is my father’s house,” said Temitope, a photographer.
Currently living in squalor, their only hope of survival now rests on their compensation and that is what they want. That is what they demand.
“This house, (points to the remains of the structure), was my father’s house. Around December, two years ago, they (government) asked us to remove anything important that could affect us from the house because of the demolition. All the tenants that were here ran away.
“They demolished two of my shops and the place I was leaving. I didn’t know where to go and had to come back to my father’s house,” Shukurat Olukoya said, trying to hold back tears.
Stating one way it is affecting residents, she revealed that since the event took place, the community had lost its peace as thieves now prey on the vulnerable.
“I was attacked in front of this building because of this demolition. They shot my daughter, as I am talking now, I came from the hospital to cook for my daughter. There were no thieves around this area, all these places had lights, but now everywhere is dark. This is too much for us. Since how many years now, they have not done anything,” she said.
“The government should help us, they should give us our money. They told us they would give us money to build again, but they did not give money to us. And we don’t know what to do. This is painful to us,” Olukoya said.
Speaking to BDSUNDAY, Toyin, who now sells roasted plantain under a giant umbrella by the rubbles of some demolished homes, said her house did not get to the road but it was marked and destroyed.
“I cried for three months,” she said. “I have nowhere to go with my four children and till now, I still don’t have a place to go. They said they will give us money but they’ve not, even the road has not been constructed. You demolished our houses and promised us roads and compensation but nothing has been done. Sanwo-Olu should help us.”
Efforts to get the compensation
For nearly two years, people have been making efforts to get their compensation. These efforts were championed by the landlords’ association in the community.
Multiple sources told the reporter that the landlords held a protest at Alausa, demanding for their pay. But were asked to go home, and promised a positive response.
In a report by NAN, the landlords said they were invited on May 5 by the state government to submit documents that showed house ownership as it had approved its payment.
“They asked us for the documents of the house and the plan. I’ve not seen anything from them since then. We don’t know what was on the ground before Ambode left, but now Sanwo-Olu has come and promised to settle us so that we would not regret the demolition, but since then, I’ve not seen anything. We are still on that now,” Ojoye, (earlier mentioned) told BDSUNDAY
Providing more details on efforts to get compensation, Omogoriola Oshilaja, a businesswoman, said she did not have documents for demolished building. She also explained that her business suffered greatly.
“They asked us to bring the plan for the house, but we didn’t have it because the house was 100 years old. They asked us to snap the house and the shops and NEPA bill. I went to Alausa to submit the documents. They promised us money. After two weeks, the landlords’ association went there, but again, we were promised compensation, but nothing has been done till now,” she narrated.
Moruf Maja, another affected resident who spoke to BDSUNDAY, said: “On one occasion we went to meet them at Alausa. While we were doing the rally there, they gave a promise that we should go back home and be expecting the compensation and that they would be starting the road.
“But since that time, we didn’t hear anything from any one of them, the road has been pending since. We have not seen any signal at all (as to) whether they want to construct the road or pay.”
However, sources claimed that some people have been compensated, but efforts made by this reporter to speak to some traditional rulers and further verify this claim failed.
“Some people have collected their money, but some are still suffering. I’ve managed to rent a house, but what if I don’t have money to rent,” Oshilaja queried.
A search for displaced residents
Sources say that after the demolitions many people died, some went back to their parents’ houses, other whose parents were affected are now on “exile”.
But those who are resilient enough to choose life now live in the remains of their broken structures; as BDSUNDAY observed within the community.
“Some went to sleep at a primary school, but they were sent away. Some also went to Fashola’s Estate to sleep, but were also sent away,” a source said.
This journalist visited the primary school—Eleja Primary School, in search of displaced resident, but a teacher who resumed work at the primary school eight months ago said nothing of sort ever happened.
A former civil servant who is now a businessman, Akim Kalejaye, said some were now in “exile because they do not have money to stay there.
“Some have gone far away to Agbado because the place they had was their father’s house and they are old and don’t have money to rent house.”
“Some people are just hanging around, while some will just build shacks with planks, which is wrong. You destroy homes, you did not give them money, and you are allowing them to suffer and they part and parcel of Lagos State. You destroy their property without giving them anything, it’s not done,” Kalejaya said.
In a phone conversation, the chairman of Igbogbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Sesan Daini, said “the government is on it.” ‘It’ as said by Sesan means settling the people.
“Like the governor rightly said some weeks ago, when the rain stops, he will resume the Ishawo and Igbogbo road construction. So I’m sure that he is on it, and they would start as soon as possible,” he said.
Just as ignorant as the residents, the chairman said he does not know what exactly is responsible for the delay in the construction of the road.
“You know government is a continuous thing. This project was inherited by the past administration. So what is holding it I don’t know, what I just know is that this government has promised that he would start immediately rain stops and they are working towards it,” he said.
However, he confirmed to BDSUNDAY that some residents had been compensated. According to him, the compensation started before the end of the last government.
No respect for kingship
BDSUNDAY gathered that even the king’s palace will be demolished, though it is still standing.
Residents who spoke to the journalist confirmed his tenacious efforts to bring succour to his people. They say he is doing something.
Specifically, the Kabiesi (king) is trying a lot about the demolitions and trying to get his people paid. He goes to Alausa from time to time, according to Ojoye who spoke earlier.
He further revealed that when the landlords’ association went to protest in Alausa and were told not to worry about it, and returned disgruntled, it was Kabiesi who calmed them down.
“They came back to Kabiesi, he (too) told them not to worry about it, that he’s making effort on it,” Ojoye told this reporter.
But despite his effort to bring a spark of smile to frowning faces in the community, he too stands a chance to be like them—but with royalty.
“Yes, they want to break the palace too, but before they start the works, they must provide one place before they open the palace because that is the place that Kabiesi and the people do their meetings. But it affected the palace,” he said.
Putting it mildly, Sesan Daini, chairman Igbogbo LCDA, said: “The palace will be partly affected.”
Antecedents/ past demolitions in Lagos
With the streams of demolitions that Lagosians have witnessed in the past, one may assume that the Lagos State government has a penchant for rendering its people homeless.
In July 2012, 30,000 people were evicted from their homes in Nigeria’s Makoko community through demolitions. One was shot dead and many were injured.
In 2017 armed officials of the Lagos State Task Force stormed Otodogbame, a waterfront community in the Lekki area, to demolish structures.
In the process, a resident was shot and killed. Premuim Times reported that the demolition rendered an estimated 5,000 people homeless.
Despite criticisms from human rights, and Amnesty International, Lagos State government defended its actions, saying the demolition was done to keep the waterfront “free from environmentally injurious and unsanitary habitation few months after it was consumed by fire and rendered uninhabitable.”
But before the report was made by Premium Times, Reuters estimated that 300, 000 could be left homeless in 2016.
Examples of demolitions are many, as a result of the State’s megacity project. But still fresh in the hearts of Lagosians is the recent demolitions of over 80 homes on Lagos Island following the Ita Faaji building collapse.
Also, massive demolition of illegal structures took place in Eric Moore to Trade Fair complex corridors.
Reacting to this, popular journalist, Kadaria Ahmed took to her Twitter handle on to condemn the move. She wrote:
“Watching the demolishing of poor people’s homes at Eric Moore by a Lagos task force. I am disappointed in @jidesanwoolu Lagos and all other Nigerian cities must stop their anti-poor policies. Before evicting people should we not provide low-cost housing?”
Also condemning the Lagos Island demolition, the Lagos Anti-Demolition Movement has said: “The Lagos State government has embarked on an unscientific and unempirical demolition of 200 houses…”
The demolitions, which usually occur in low-income environments, have given human rights activists reasons to believe that the government is being unjust to low-income population.
Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, the director of research and policy at Spaces for Change in an article published by BusinessDay wrote:
“There is evidence that state-ordered demolitions often target low-income neighbourhoods. Nearly all the mass demolitions in the state have occurred in the informal settlements, or neighbourhoods populated by low-income and extremely poor residents.
“In other words, no amount of flooding in the highbrow communities can ever result in state-ordered demolitions despite overwhelming evidence showing that affluent neighbourhoods in the Lekki and Ajah axis, for instance, experience flooding more frequently and with greater intensity.”
What the law says
Section 55 of the Lagos State Urban Renewal and Policy Development Law enacted by the Lagos State government makes provisions for demolitions scenarios. Parts of the section states thus:
Section 55 (1) The Renewal Agency shall, in an improvement area, have power to:
(b) grant, guarantee or otherwise facilitate the granting of loans to a person or group of persons to;
(i) assist in the improvement, repair or renovation of houses within the area as may be directed by the Renewal Agency; or (ii) provide, improve, repair or renovate social and communal facilities within the area;
(c) subject to the provision of this Law, demolish or order the demolition of a building or part of it and, where appropriate, recover the cost of the demolition from the owner of the building or part of it;
(d) Improve, repair or renovate or order the improvement, repair or renovation of a building or part of it and where appropriate, recover the cost of the improvement or repair from the owner of the building or part of it; and
(e) Pay compensation within 90 days on such terms and conditions as may be prescribed, to a person who suffers a loss or damage through the exercise of its powers in the area.
But according to Ibezim-Ohaeri, as previous demolition practices in the state clearly demonstrate, official adherence to statutory safeguards is uncommon.
“Calling for demolitions without safeguards is an invitation to anarchy. Mitigation measures—including compensation, resettlement, or provision of temporary shelter, and humanitarian assistance—aimed at lessening the deleterious impact of mass displacement on vulnerable groups such as women, aged, and young children, are rarely ever considered and adopted,” she said.
“Demolitions should only happen within the confines of the law,” Ibezim-Ohaeri added. But do they?
Abiodun Baiyewu, executive director, Global Rights Nigeria, told BDSUNDAY that government policies should be pro-poor, lamenting that Nigerian government has continued to make even more vulnerable citizens it should protect.
“The act of ridding cities of the poor does not reduce poverty in the city, it deepens it. What the government did in the instance of this community is against the rule of law and raises even more questions,” Baiyewu said.
He wondered if they obtain a court order sanctioning the demolitions; why they did not respect the traditional land title holding of this indigenous community, and if they prove they took over the land for “public good.”
“Every Nigerian community is indigenous to ancestral land and once you kick them out, they become ‘settlers’ wherever you rehabilitate them to. This is often the cause of lots of conflicts. The Constitution mandates that the natural resources of a community must be used for the good of the community or not at all. Land is a natural resource. I fail to see how dispossessing these communities of their lands and access to shelter, and thereby impoverishing them will be for public good. There were children in that community. Now they sleep in the open. How does government justify their right to be protected from such vulnerabilities? I have more questions than answers,” Baiyewu said.
Desmond Okon
