Residents of the Precious Seed waterfront community in Oworonshoki have accused the Lagos State Government of carrying out a mass forced eviction that displaced more than 3,000 people in clear violation of court orders.
In a statement by Global Rights, it stated that the demolition began early on November twenty eight when officers of the Lagos State Task Force and staff of LASEMA arrived at the community with an excavator.
It added that community leaders and lawyers from Justice and Empowerment Initiatives attempted to stop the operation by presenting subsisting injunctions from the Lagos State High Court. The orders protect several waterfront communities from evictions without consultation or resettlement.
“Despite the injunctions pasted on buildings and at the community gate, the demolition moved ahead. Residents and their lawyers were teargassed at the entrance as they tried to appeal to officials.”
The statement stated that no building in PRECIOUS SEED had been marked for demolition. Residents reported that the only prior warning was a brief visit by the Task Force a day earlier.
“A teacher at a local NGO run school managed to delay the operation temporarily because more than one hundred pupils were sitting entrance examinations.
By 8:20 in the morning, the LASEMA excavator, Task Force officers and agberos armed with machetes and sticks began pulling down structures. Several multi storey homes and churches were destroyed.”the statement added
A widow who recently lost her husband remained on the balcony of her two storey home for hours, saying she would not leave the only property left to her. Another widow had to be dragged away by family members as her home was brought down.
The statement added that a house numbering exercise carried out in April 2024, showed that PRECIOUS SEED had 292 buildings, 996 households, 299 businesses and more than 3,000 residents.
Demolitions continued on Friday and extended to neighbouring streets in Oworonshoki. Hundreds of displaced residents are now sleeping in the rubble while guarding their belongings.
Civil society organisations say the eviction is the latest in a growing pattern across Lagos. Communities in Oworonshoki, Apapa, Otto, Oko Baba, Aiyetoro and Ilaje Otumara have faced demolitions since twenty twenty three. Groups warn that the trend reflects the influence of powerful land interests and growing disregard for court orders.
Megan S Chapman, Co-founder,Justice and Empowerment Initiatives, Abiodun Baiyewu, Executive Director, Rights, and leaders of the Nigerian Slum and Informal Settlement Federation and Cee Hope, condemned the operation. They urged the Lagos State Government to halt the eviction immediately and begin rebuilding the destroyed homes.
They warned that repeated evictions during a severe economic crisis were exposing families to homelessness, school dropouts, hunger, health risks and long term social disruption.
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