Demolition sparks outrage in Lagos
There was an outrage over the weekend’s demolition of structures by the Lagos State Government at the Arowojobe and Mende estates in Maryland, Lagos.
The state government said the exercise was meant to reclaim the right of way of the Odo-Iya Alaro channel.
But residents protested against the demolition and accused the government of giving a two-hour notice.
In one of the demolition clips that went viral online, a woman lamented that the government only gave them two hours to pack out.
She said, “Happening right now at Mende Villa One. Two hours to pack out? Two hours, that was what the Lagos State Government gave, and they are here demolishing. Mende Villa, this is in Maryland. Where do they want us to put our property?”
A female singer, Yemi Alade, also lashed out at the government over the demolition, saying, “Lagos State, what is going on? Does it make sense that people will invest millions of naira, millions of dollars into real estate, buy houses, buy land and Lagos State (government) will go and be breaking walls, breaking houses, rendering people homeless overnight? And it’s done serially.
It is done back-to-back. Now Maryland, Mende area is on fire. People are sleeping in their houses, waking up the next day homeless.”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, earlier posted on his X account on Saturday.
Wahab said, “We also visited Mende Villa, Maryland, where the developer initially claimed there was a drainage approval on the property. The directors who were in the know of what transpired at the time were invited to speak on the issue but confirmed that the developer was given temporary and conditional approval to leave a 20m setback from the edge o System 1 but he encroached o the setback thereby obstructin the flow of rainwater.
“However, by the magnanimit of Governor @jidesanwoolu, th ROW was approved to be reduce to 100m from 140m and sprea on a 60/40 basis (60 Mende/4 Ogudu) instead of the initial 140 sitting on the Mende side.
“The instruction to immediatel continue the removal of a structures on the alignment ha been given to the enforcemen team after the 1st notice to remov was served on them in 2021 an the last notice was served i November 2023 after the meetin with the stakeholders.”