Seventy-year -old George Egosoku recently lost the house he built in Badagry, after 35 years as a luxurious bus driver, to the wrecking blades of bulldozers deployed by the Nigerian Police Force to demolish buildings erected at an estate at Atinporomeh village.
Mr Egosoku is amongst the 10,000 residents of Atinporomeh – about 200 miles away from Lagos – now homeless following the demolition of almost 1,500 buildings in the community by police authority despite a subsisting court case on the land matter.
“We woke in the morning to see that the police have started demolishing houses from the bus stop and one after the other, the bulldozers brought down all the houses including mine and now I have nowhere to live but under these bricks,” the frail-looking man said.
He has erected a shack – on the rubble of his demolished house – from a few bricks mounted on each other, covered with an elevated roofing sheet, which he now calls home.
“The two rainfalls –the last being heaviest so far this year – beat me so bad here because the breeze blew away my roof with mosquito biting me. I have no money to rent a house and no place to go”, he said, explaining that he cannot stand the shame of going to live with his brother, where his wife and five children have already relocated to.
A few plates, one kettle placed on stones to boil water, rug, two wooden strands of his bed and a mattress – which was dampened by the rain – were all he could recuse from his home for use as his new survival kit.
This is the latest demolition crisis in Lagos state, following similar acts at Makoko, Ijora Badia and Ajelogo.
Officials of the Lagos state Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Renewal claimed there was no official notice from the ministry on a planned demolition of houses in Atinporomeh, residents of the community confirmed that the bulldozers were accompanied by vehicles and officials of the Ministry when the demolition exercise commenced by 3am on December 15.
Egosoku’s building was a two-bedroom bungalow with two shops where his wife sold provisions and cooking ware to support the family.
It all started on Saturday, December 14th when the police authority served the community a notice of eviction on the orders that the NPF is now the rightful owner of the land in the community. The letter was signed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, FG Ogundeji.
The community quickly reached out to their lawyer at Ricky Tarfa chambers, who replied the police, pointing out that there is an existing court case on the land. The lawyer further noted that the land which the police is laying claims to is in Agemowo and Agelode Mowo communities, and not Atinporomeh, which was served the letter.
But officials of the law enforcement agency ignored the court’s order and demolished all the buildings in the community which included schools, churches, hotel, and shopping complex in the early hours of the following day.
According to the community’s lawyer, Declan Kemdiri, “the police arrived with four black maria vans, where they arrested and locked up anyone that resisted, 18 bulldozers and five caterpillars to quickly and swiftly level the buildings before the break of dawn.”
When City Voice visited Atinporomeh, the community of over 15hectares was a wrecked site with rubbles of debris on all the plots.
Most of the displaced families are now scattered all over the state, but Mr Egosoku stayed back in his make shift residence to fight the authority in his own way.
“This is man’s inhumanity to man,” said the chairman of Atinporomeh community, Mr Charles Adu, because “this is a very peaceful community with no government presence as we built our schools, markets and roads ourselves.
“The demolition of houses on a land case before the court under the purview of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) as the governor of the state, is a gross abuse of human rights.”
He accused the state government of complacency following the wreckage caused by the police, an agency of the federal government.
“This is a collaboration between the state government and the federal government and the state government has not visited this place or said anything about it and this is government that has no housing policy,” he said.
“This is not a slum or shanty town that harbours criminals. This is not Makoko and we did not build our houses under high tension cables” referring to reasons why some demolitions were undertaken by the state government.
Adu, who lost his house and a shopping complex in the demolition, has vowed to lead repeated protests to Alausa until the governor addresses the displaced in person. They did not see the governor during the last visit to his office.
Atinporomeh is located miles away from the heart of Lagos and the members now have to spend the little they have to travel the very long distance to fight for their abuse.
Conspiracy of silence
“The conspiracy of silence by the Lagos state government is deafening and one wonders what the government is up to on this issue” said Kemdirim.
The lawyer recalled that in 2011, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mrs Obembe initiated moves to take over the community, marking some buildings for demolition but the residents protested to the Lagos State House of Assembly.
The Speaker summoned officials of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban renewal and they denied issuing any such notices.
Despite this, they approached the court for a stay of action and it was very surprising to see officials of the Ministry accompany the police on the day of demolition.
Asked for how long he will remain in his make shift home, a distraught Egosoku said, “I am waiting for compensation for my house. I spent about N3million of all my life savings to build this house and if government does not compensate me, they will have to carry out from here. Even if they carry me from here, I will remain on the road for people to see me until I die.”
