Lagos community recalls tales of hardship as bulldozer reduce buildings to rubble

As Nigerians battle with housing deficits, slum settlements have been an alternative option for low-income earners. Dayo Oyewo in this report writes about the forceful eviction of residents of the Mosafejo community in the Oworonshoki area of Lagos State and the inhumane living conditions they have been subjected to thereafter

On Thursday, July 27, 2023, officials of the Lagos State Environmental Task Force invaded the Mosafejo community, a slum settlement at Oworonshoki, in the Kosofe Local Government Area of the state.

The invasion was unprecedented as the dwellers were taken unawares when the armed officials ordered them to vacate the location with immediate effect.

Shocked by the development, the residents became perplexed and while they were still trying to process what was happening, the Task Force and some suspected thugs that came with them had begun to pull down all the structures in sight.

In what started at about 7 am, Ramot Hezekiah and her three children were still in bed when they heard what sounded like a commotion. By the time she rushed out, it was too late and the next thing she was allowed to do on the spot was to go back inside and bring her children out. This was the fate of others who were forcefully ejected from their buildings.

 “We did not get any notice before they came around. They just moved in with their bulldozer and started setting people’s houses on fire. My children were the only ones I was able to bring out. They tore our mattresses, soaked them in petrol, and threw them into our houses. They were pulling down the houses, saying no one must pick anything. They also restricted people from taking videos and pictures of the demolition. Only a few people managed to salvage their property and these were people lucky to be around. The demolition started from the Coker and Idi-Araba areas of the community before they got to Mosafejo,” Hezekiah told our correspondent during a visit to the community.

The 47-year-old mother of three was a proud owner of a canteen before the incident. The one-time food vendor was however seen tilling the ground while hunting for plastics which she gathered and sold to buyers for recycling.

“The suffering is too much. The people who were supposed to help us were also victims of the demolition. I sold food before the incident, but now, I have to scavenge and gather plastics to sell so that I can feed my four children. This is our property, I have acquired this place since 30 years ago,” Hezekiah lamented.

It was gathered that the location used to be occupied by water before the settlers found it habitable and decided to fill it up gradually. Eighty-one-year-old Oluladun Abokede had been living in the area since the early 1970s. She was part of those who laboured to fill the place before she bought her own space where she lived. But all she had worked for all her life after then was brought down before her teary eyes during the demolition.

She said, “I have been here for over 40 years. When they gave us the first notice about 20 years ago, we challenged it and made them realise that we bought the place and we own it. The whole place was filled with water when we settled here. There used to be a wooden bridge here back then, but we decided to fill it up gradually before the foundation became solid. I bought a land here then and I settled down and built my house just like others. Now that the place has become habitable, that is when the government is coming to take it away from us in this manner. We don’t want to sell our land. We want it back. There is nowhere to go. Those who had left here had to come back again. We were not able to move out our belongings when the demolition started.”

Adults, children tear-gassed

Aside from setting the houses on fire, the stern-looking officers during the operation which lasted for hours also were said to have opened teargas on both the adults and children who were struggling to evacuate some of their belongings.

A resident, Fausat Salami, said, “Because of the way they asked us to move our things out, some of us tried to challenge their action. That was how they released teargas. They did not even care about the children who were with us. All they cared about was to carry out the demolition and the teargas affected our children as some of them started crying because of its effect on their eyes. We have to quickly rush them out of the place.”

Sleeping in the open space

Some months after the incident happened, the affected victims were left sleeping in the open space without a roof.

“We have been sleeping outside since the incident happened. This happened during the rainy season and the rain fell on us throughout. We bought this place and we were given a receipt. Some people who left had to come down since they had nowhere to live,” Rashidat Afolabi revealed.

While showing our correspondent who visited the area a covered wooden table, she said that was where she hid with her children whenever it rained.

“My children became sick and almost died due to the condition. It took the intervention of some Good Samaritans who provided some drugs to treat them,” she added.

Children’s education truncated

Fathia, Miriam, Olamide, and Tijani were among several kids our correspondent found in the slum roaming about while they also ran errands to fend for themselves. They had last seen the four walls of the classroom since the incident happened, as their parents still grapple with the reality of no longer having a shelter to keep their heads. For some of them, their educational materials and school uniforms were all they wanted to salvage when the task force officials set their homes on fire.

A father of two, Tunji Alani, said, “My children have been unable to go to school since the incident happened. I am just about getting them a lesson teacher. Since the incident happened, my priority has been how to feed them and not even about going to school. What happened affected me economically and there was no how I could meet up with the demands of enrolling them in school. The school we have around here was also demolished. It was affordable and that is where most of them used to attend.”

Speaking in the same vein, another resident in the community who identified herself simply as Folashade and also a single mother lamented her inability to make her children go back to school.

She said, “My two children are no longer with me since the incident happened. I had to keep them with my friends. They have not gone to school since then. I have to come back here to start from scratch to see what I can do to make some money so that my children can return to school. They are my future and I don’t want them to go through what I am going through in life. I’m doing this my little way and it will be unfair for the government to come and jeopardise their future.”

Kafayat Abosede owned two shops where she sells shoes and bags. Her presence also brings joy to members of the community as she sells movies produced in CDs while she also shows some of the movies in the evening. Both the young and old who did not have the luxury of buying modern appliances and gadgets to watch the movies in the comfort of their homes gathered in her shop. Like the unlucky ones, she lost everything as her structure was brought down in her absence.

 “I was not around when it happened and there was no way I could have rushed down here. It was those who were around that helped me to pick up a few of my belongings. My gas cylinder, pot, TV and my DVD were all burnt down. By the time I arrived, the whole place had been levelled. I even took pictures of some places that were still burning. The place we relocated to, we could not find anything to do there, so we have to come back here,” she said.

Harvest of deaths

Just like a microcosm of a larger society, the members of the community had lived their lives in the area for years, with the evolution of procreation and death. However, the sudden invasion and wanton destruction that occurred on the fateful day affected both the healthy and ailing ones among them.

It was gathered that the demolition not only displaced the affected victims but also led to the loss of lives.

These included a six-year-old boy who was said to have been caught up in one of the burning structures. Others who lost their lives were identified simply as Bode, Olawunmi, and one Mrs Joseph.

“Seven people have died as a result of the incident. These were people we least expected would no longer be alive by now. A pregnant woman whom we referred to as Mrs Joshua died of shock when the demolition started. She had been treating high blood pressure, but when they came, her husband was not at home. She was seen grasping for breath when the friends of her husband rushed her to Afolabi Hospital where she eventually died.

“A nursing mother, Olawunmi, was just recuperating after birth and later died due to the shock. We were told that her newborn baby also died.

“A six-year-old boy who was also trying to help his father got burnt by the fire. When the demolition started, the boy ran inside to pack his school uniforms and some books when the task force officials threw fire into their wooden house. His father did not know he was still inside and the boy could not escape either. By the time he was rescued, he had already inhaled the smoke and suffered burns on his body before he later died. We did a collation of the pictures and took it to Alausa where we protested.

Protest and denial

A youth leader in the community, Opeyemi Ogunlami, told our correspondent that the affected residents embarked on a series of protests at the state House of Assembly which resulted in the intervention of the lawmakers.

According to him, the Surveyor General of the state as well as the chairman of the Task Force were invited, adding that they both distanced themselves from what instigated the demolition.

Opeyemi said, “When the Surveyor-General of Lagos State appeared before the lawmakers, he said the state wanted to use a part of the location for Ferry Getty and not the whole expanse of land. After that, the monarch of Bariga went to the Lagos State House of Assembly and claimed the location as his ancestral land. So, these are two different things. So, the fact we got from the meeting in the House of Assembly was that there is no government acquisition in this area.

“The Surveyor-General brought the document out. So they are only passing wrong information to people who cannot go and find out to confirm if truly there is a gazette. Who gazetted what? Is it individual or government? So, for us, we are saying that they need to prove it. The Lagos State House of Assembly cannot settle this kind of dispute.

“Meanwhile, there is a letter indicating those who instructed the Task Force to carry out the demolition. The chairman of Task Force, Jejeloye was also invited by the Assembly to tell the lawmakers that the king sent a letter to them that this area is a criminal hideout. He said criminal elements from China Town to Tall Mainland Bridge run to this side. That was what he told the Assembly and he brought the letter out, but he did not make the letter available to us.”

Proposed site for an estate

Opeyemi who had been at the forefront of protesting what he described as illegal eviction revealed that the immediate past traditional ruler of Oworonshoki resold the place and instructed residents of that area to repurchase their land.

He also added that the proponents of the demolition were planning to build an estate at the location.

He said, “They are not intending just to demolish that area, they have an estate they have been working on in that place and that is why we insist that they cannot dispose of the poor to build their own Elite Villa which is the name of the estate. Five hundred square metres is N60 million. They are selling a square metre for N120,000. And the sand filling from the Third Mainland Bridge to the other side of Oworo-Ifako must meet at the back. So the people occupying that place they called a slum area are the ones affecting the meeting of the sand-fillings. So they are selling out that place.

“Investors have been there already. That is just the motive of that place and it is the Oba of Oworo who is in charge of the community. A lot of activities have been happening there even before this king was enthroned. Some thugs used to wreak havoc in the area on purpose until the youths in Oworonshoki stood up and employed the Oodua People’s Congress. It has been three years since we recorded incidences of crime in the community. So when they are coming up now to say it is a hideout, Oworonshoki has nothing of such.”

We want a replica of Eko Atlantic City – Monarch

The current traditional ruler of Oworonshoki, Oba Babatunde Saliu, described the evicted victims as squatters, adding that the structures were built on government’s acquisition.

He said the temporary structures were temporarily built and were meant to be removed once the government was ready to use the area.

While declaring his opposition to shanties in the area, the monarch said he wanted the location to boast of beautiful structures such as high-rise buildings on Victoria Island and Eko Atlantic City.

He said, “I want development for my community. All those who build on the shanty areas built on government acquisition. Ninety per cent of them are squatters. But what I can do as a traditional ruler is to see how the government can help them but you can’t tell the government to give you money on what does not belong to you. Ask them to bring the receipt of the land. Who sold the land to them? How much did they buy it? How did they get to that land? Who put them there? Most of them in that place know that they are on government acquisition. They only went to that place to build a temporary structure and that when a government comes, they will remove those things. I became the monarch two years ago and they have been serving them notices about 10 to 20 years ago. I don’t want shanties in my area. Everybody wants development. We want Oworonshoki to be another Dubai. We want a replica of what they have on Victoria Island and Eko Atlantic City, not having a place where someone can just come from one village and you think the next to do is to go and buy land for N50,000 and start putting up a temporary structure in a waterfront. A land that is supposed to be prime land and having high-rise buildings with beautiful structures. A place where people can come, that will serve as a tourist attraction but people will just come and put some planks and start staying there like it is a no man’s land.”

Forceful eviction and human rights abuse

A United Nations Special Rapporteur, Leilani Farha, during a visit to Nigeria in 2019 spoke on the right to adequate housing, saying there was an urgent human rights crisis in the country reflected in the inhumane conditions in the country’s informal settlements.

She said there was an estimated housing deficit of 22 million units, and 130 million people lack access to adequate sanitation. Meanwhile, newly built luxury dwellings are springing up throughout cities – made possible often through the forced eviction of poor communities.

According to her, “The government must take urgent measures to decriminalise homelessness and poverty and declare a nationwide moratorium on forced evictions. These measures will improve the lives of those most in need, and they can be introduced immediately as they do not require government spending.

Farha also recommended the establishment of a national truth commission to investigate gross human rights violations in the context of forced evictions and provide remedies to the victims.

She also encouraged the Nigerian government to prioritise the participatory upgrading of informal settlements and to adopt a rights-based national housing strategy, which recognises housing as a fundamental right in national law.

The Special Rapporteur urged the government to address the grossly inadequate housing conditions with the urgency and rigour befitting a human rights crisis of this scale.

The Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Wednesday, November 16, 2023, disclosed that his administration had, in less than five years, provided over 3,000 homes for the residents, assuring that efforts are still in progress to reduce the 17 million housing deficit in the state.

The governor made this known at the Conference of Directors of Lands in the federal and state Ministries, Departments and Agencies, themed, “Improving Land-Based Revenue of the Federating Units in Nigeria through Efficient and Effective Land Administration.”

Fact Sheet on demolition

A document titled, “Factsheet about the Oworonshoki forced evictions,” sighted by our correspondent wondered why a sand-fill was being proposed after encroachment on the wetlands was said to be an environmental concern for the state.

 The document which provided insight into the development, stated that the state government’s claim that the communities have “encroached wetlands, illegally converted wetland and live on wetland” is disingenuous, as many of the affected areas, such as the Precious Seeds Community, are not on wetland but border the lagoon. It added that the government’s actions of sand-filling this wetland for development purposes contradict their stated concern for wetland protection.

On the forced evictions, the factsheet noted that “over 40,000 households in Oworonshoki -7,000 homes and structures were demolished at the end of July 2023; Enforcement notice issued on July 18, 2023, by the Ministry of Environment only to residents in Lekan Oyebade Street, Oworo and a few more streets referring to the Environmental Management and Protection Law 2017;

Issuing one notice for a whole street or community instead for individual residences affected is demeaning and deprives residents of their rights.”

The document, while citing suspected foul play, added that the demolished area is assigned for a newly proposed Jetty site of 70ha in the recently published Kosofe Model City Plan (2020-2040). A functioning jetty already exists in Oworonshoki, built five years ago. The Ministry of Transportation is responsible for the development of the planned jetty until 2035. Why did the ministry not discuss with affected residents their possible integration.

The spokesperson for the task force, Raheem Gbadeyanka, said there were no buildings in the place when the demolition took place except makeshifts.

Gbadeyanka who explained that a notice was served on the community with a reminder that followed in March and April, also noted that some persons were making money off them which could have perhaps led to the protest.

He also alleged that criminals ran into the community to take refuge after robbing people.

He said, “There were no buildings there. What they had there were makeshift and they had to be demolished. How can one be living in a building where you have your toilets and you remove one of the planks and pass your faeces? Despite being a slum, the Lagos State Taskforce was magnanimous enough to serve them a notice as early as February. We reminded them in March and April, 2023. It is not a must that they must live in shanties. There are many houses in Sango where you can live comfortably. These people complaining are paying rent. Some hoodlums are feeding fat on them. Before you can get two or three metres to erect something there, you have to pay some unscrupulous elements who are feeding fat on them and I am sure these are the people who are sponsoring them to protest. Who allocated the place to them? If it is a slum, it has to be clear. This is Lagos, a state that has a mega city status. I think all of us in this country should have an eagle’s eye. If you know something is going wrong in a certain area, I think the onus is on all of us to join hands together and fight it. When some people rob on the water, they run into these shanties and hibernate there. People living in an area have to be profiled and when you do so and discover that some of them are suspected criminals, then I think it is the responsibility of the government to protect lives and property.”

Expert speaks

An estate surveyor and valuer, Olufemi Oyedele, said the choice of living in a slum is a result of self-help by the settlers.

Oyedele said the government was supposed to carry out a face-lift instead of demolishing the structures and chasing the residents away.

He said, “Government is about the people they are representing. Unfortunately, we don’t have a government in Nigeria. We just have people grandstanding because of the opportunity they have. Slums develop when people resort to self-help. If not, in a normal environment, the government is supposed to provide houses for the people. So, when people live in slums, it is because they are trying to help themselves. What the government is expected to do is called urban renewal. It is not to demolish and chase them away. What you need to do is a facelift.

“In a situation where the government is demolishing and then putting a branded estate and chasing away the occupiers is sheer discrimination. Yes, it is allowed that an area can be upgraded naturally and people will leave that area and go to the area they can afford. A situation where the government demolished Maroko and converted it into a branded community and then made sure that the original occupiers did not stay there shows that the government is inhumane. A situation where you demolish people’s houses and you turn them into an organised environment and you think those original owners cannot stay in that organised area, I don’t know what to call that kind of system.

“In developed countries, they upgrade settlements and not chase the occupiers. If government cannot help these people, I don’t know who can help.”

Lagos has plans for the area -Commissioner

When our correspondent contacted the state Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso, he said the demolition was part of the state’s urban regeneration programme.

Omotoso, who described the area as shorelines, noted that they were acquired for jetty.

He further explained that the demolished area was meant for commercial and government purposes, adding that a housing estate could also be sited there.

He said, “It is part of the ongoing urban regeneration scheme. We are clearing every area we have shanties in the state. But in the case of this area in question, all sites are located at the lagoon. These are places that have been acquired for jetty. There is no place where we have shanties on waterfronts. It is not done. The place has already been committed to government activities. If you go to any country where there are shorelines, you will see how beautiful their shorelines are. They are used for commercial and government public purposes. Shorelines are a special part of any mega city. So the place is a committed area. Part of it is also a jetty site acquisition, but these people went to build shanties there, which is why they removed them. Building an estate there is also not a bad idea. If you have been in a place for a hundred years and you don’t regularise your papers, anything can happen. The government does not move into an area and begins to demolish a democracy. There must have been communication between the residents and the government. If they say they have been there for long, that does that make it legal.”