By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The Lagos state government appears incapacitated to rein in on land grabbers who act as law unto themselves in the state. On December 31, 2020, at a time most Nigerians were in celebration mood to welcome the New Year, the officials of the Lagos state ministries of Transportation and Environment were on rogue mission demolishing a slum settlement – Monkey Village, rendering more than 300 families homeless. And the demolition came without any prior notice, which backs up the claim that it is an illegal exercise.
According to a Lagos lawyer, Barrister Monday Onyekachi Ubani who is a counsel to one of the property owners affected by the demolition, the commissioners for Environment, Tunji Bello, and his Transportation counterpart, Frederic Oladeinde, were unaware of the demolition perpetrated by officials under their watch.
Ubani said in a statement he personally signed and made available to TheNiche that: “I have spoken to the Commissioners of Transport Hon Oladeinde, and Environment, a gentleman, Mr Tunji Bello, who have all denied knowledge of the invasion. I have also spoken to the Chairman of Lagos State Task Force who is also apparently not aware of this illegal operation of using state apparatus to carry out personal ambition of notorious land grabbers.”
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According to TheNiche findings, the land grabbers started the scheme to grab the land of Barrister Ubani’s client’s situated near the Monkey Village with a fictitious Supreme Court judgment. Ubani then filed a restraining court order against the invaders, only for them to return with thugs and officials of Lagos state government to not only demolish the property of Ubani’s client which is being used as mechanic workshop, but the entire monkey village which the residents have been lawfully inhabiting with the permission of the land owners
The executive director of CEE-HOPE, Betty Abah, whose organization only recently built an ICT hub for the computer literacy of the youths in the community, and a borehole to meet their water needs, received the news of the demolition with shock because the action will further push the already disadvantaged children in the community further the ladder of deprivation.
She said in a statement obtained by TheNiche that: “From my findings from community members at Monkey Village this evening, the early morning demolition exercise, of today, December 31 came as a complete surprise to them as they were totally unaware of any court case nor have they ever been served any eviction notice by anyone.
“The community sits on about seven plots of land owned by different private individuals and the residents live there on the permission of the owners with some paying monthly due rent while others stay on the generosity of the owners pending when they are ready to develop their lands.
“There was indeed a court case/land ownership contest involving a single land that was being used as a mechanic workshop on #1 Folorunsho Kuku Street, Off Agbaoku, Opebi which is near Monkey Village and which was the first place to be demolished today. The lawyer to one of the parties claiming ownership of the land, Barrister Monday Ubani has since put up a statement earlier today claiming that the court judgment used as authority to demolish the property was a fake one and the personnel used were also not the court bailiffs and other relevant agencies but MOPOL personnel and thugs.
“He indeed concluded that they are rather land grabbers utilising the machinery of government to grab lands. The demolition of Monkey Village was therefore completely out of line. The plots of lands from where about 400 persons were forced out on New Year’s eve, in the midst of a global pandemic and amidst a major nationwide recession, was not among contested one. Why was the community demolished when the owners did not complain, did not sue them or ask that they vacate the place, and when their existence did not violate any government plan or interpretation in any official right of way? Why was Monkey Village demolished?”
“The destruction of CEE-HOPE’s ICT Centre constitutes an attack on the educational aspiration of children already made vulnerable by their societal status as children of the poor and generally lacking in opportunities,” Anah said.
She said even appeals by community members to the demolition squad to spare the computers and community library of CEE-HOPE fell on deaf ears as the bulldozers brought down everything inside the facilities.
“We call for a thorough investigation of this brazen and clearly lawless act, and most of all, attack on the urban poor.,” she said.
