In another land-grabbing effort, Lagos officials clamp down on the poor in Oworonshoki
By Ishaya Ibrahim
One of the predictables in Lagos is that slum communities, rather than get upgraded, are demolished. The dispossessed land then becomes the property of the super-rich and mighty.
How it all began
This attempt to remove the poor from their abode and hand over their land to the super-rich started in Maroko, a community in the Eti-Osa area of Lagos. It was demolished in July 1990.
The government’s excuse for this first largest forced eviction was that the community was below sea level and needed to be filled in with sand. Today, it is one of the plushest business districts in Lagos. The over 300,000 poor displaced owners never got compensation.
More demolitions
After Maroko, other demolitions of poor communities followed, including Otodo Gbame, Itedo, and Monkey Village among many others. And in all these demolitions, no notices were given. The bulldozers simply crushed the little properties of the poor, and in some cases, policemen were on hand to brutalise them, like in the case of Makoko, where a young man was killed by police during an attempted demolition.
Last week, the demolition squad of the Lagos government stormed Oworonshoki to render several women and children homeless.
Moved by the plight of several children and elderly women sleeping outside their demolished abode, the executive director of CEE-HOPE, a non-governmental organisation committed to the welfare of children, mobilised journalists, lawyers and anyone who could be of help to the community.
The team learnt that the demolition squad didn’t give any notice.
A politician and activist, Honourable Opeyemi Benjamin, who visited the area, was arrested at the demolition site, and thrown into a Black Maria like a common criminal.
Abah said: “If a known politician in the community could be bundled this way, what then is the fate of faceless residents.”
She said the residents have lamented the fact that the government didn’t inform them before coming, nor is there any form of compensation in play. In fact, residents were said to have even paid some task force officials the sum of N25,000 before they could remove their properties.
As it stands, the people’s fate remains bleak.