International human rights group, Amnesty International has released a detailed report on its findings into the unfortunate demolition and eviction of over 10,000 Lagosians by the Lagos state government in Ilubirin and Otodo-Gbame areas of Lagos.
The report titled ‘The Human Cost of a Megacity: Forced Evictions of the Urban Poor in Lagos’ was contained in a Press statement released by the group on Tuesday November 14, 2017 A copy of which has been sent to the lagos state government.The report state summarily that eleven individuals were killed in the demolitions with seventeen missing.
In addition to Amnesty report, It is worthy of mentioning that the lagos state government embarked on these two demolitions after the residents of the areas had dragged the government to court and obtained a stay of execution on the planned demolitions of both seaside towns while it deliberated on the case brought before it and decided on an appropriate course of action.The government chose to suit itself as it went ahead with the demolition without waiting for the court to deliver its judgement in the case. The demolition took place without a prior notice to the inhabitants and at night when the residents could not raise alarm or protect themselves from the brutal police force.
Also, the Nigerian Police which was recently named the worst police in the world by WISPI was on hand to support the illegal evictions of these individuals as bullet were shot carelessly at innocent lagosians and by the time the dust settled, eleven souls have gone.To add salt to the injury of the evictees, the police officers involved in that shameful act were not arrested nor prosecuted for extrajudicial killings but were granted official protection as their identity was shrouded in secrecy.
Also the corpses of the residents that drowned in the course of the eviction was left unattended to by the government until the residents went to remove the corpses themselves for proper burial.
The demolition of Otodo-Gbame and Ilubirin is one out of many as the state government also demolished more than 200 houses in Balogun extension Iwaya Yaba in August 2017 months after the demolition at Otodo-Gbame.
The Lagos state government has proven yet again, as evidenced by this new Amnesty International report that it is more concerned presenting the illusory image of economic advancement at the expense of the citizenry that voted it into power. And that is a crying shame.
