Demolition: Home owners count losses, want justice

Over 5,000 families who live in over 500 houses in Kayetoro community in Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State were rendered homeless when the state government demolished all structures in the community which has been in existence for over 20 years.

Risikat Ramoni in Lagos engaged the residents and real estate experts while X-raying what went wrong along the way.

Ebunoluwa, who moved into Kayetoro community in Ibeju-Lekki four years ago with her family, had dreamt of bidding farewell to paying house rent in Lagos.

Ibeju-Lekki was said to be a peaceful area, with no security breaches.

In 2017, Ebun and her husband purchased a piece of land at N550,000 from the ‘omo-onile’ (original land owners) and built their dream home.

To their dismay, on November 24, 2020, the state authorities visited the community and told them they were all occupying an allocated land.

They were served a notice to “remove their buildings” from the area or risk demolition as their buildings were considered as “illegally built on government land”.

The entire community was thrown into confusion and worry. They started engaging different ministries and agencies, including physical planning, surveyor-general’s office and land bureau. They were given assurances that all was well.

It actually seemed well until February 2021 when the New Town Development Authority (NTDA) served them another notice; a seven-day notice stipulating that residents in the estate should “remove their structures.”

On February 8, 2021, bulldozers from the land bureau demolished the community which was home to many families, parents and their children, traders, retirees, media practitioners, government and many others.

Recalling the incident, Ebun said: “I received a call that demolition was about to take place and neither I nor my husband was at home. It would take some time to get there, so we asked people around to break in and help with our luggage. By the time we got there, it was too late. Many of our valuables, including two laptops have been destroyed, some were carted away by the omo-oniles and the rest are now kept somewhere.

“Ever since the incident, I have been rendered a squatter. My husband has also been moving from one place to the other without a particular place to call home and we are still in debt of a cooperative society from which we borrowed money to buy the land and build the house. Our children are also affected. Due to the incident, three women died and many others were in hospital due to the shock.”

To ensure the matter is not swept under the carpet, Ebun noted that the community members have been trying to engage the government as the action is seen as an injustice. They all want their land back as well as compensation.

Another affected homeowner, Mrs Blessing Ike said: “This is the second time I am falling victim to house demolition. The first time, we bought the land through the Omo-Onile and so when our house was demolished, we decided never to buy from them again. So when we recovered from our first loss, we worked hard and gathered money to buy another land. This time, it was a surveyor we went to meet straightaway, who advised us to go ahead with the transaction that the land was free. It was in 2016 and we got it for N1,200,000 per plot.”

After the November notice about the place being a fenced area, the community contributed money to avoid demolition. Mrs Ike explained, “We were asked to contribute N6,000,000 for a lawyer to make a case for us. The lawyer promised to resolve it but the demolition was never averted. We even contributed about N10,000,000 to a government official and we were told not to worry about the demolition notice. But around 3am on Monday, some officials accompanied by task force policemen brought bulldozers and demolished about 500 houses.

“We were never told that the land had been acquired by the state government. Some of us from the community were told that the land was not under government acquisition.”

 What went wrong?

The area was a fast-developing community with several fully completed and occupied houses and several buildings nearing completion.

Investigation revealed that the area falls within the boundary of Idera Scheme Acquisition, a private sector developers’ programme by the New Towns Development Authority (NTDA). Also, on the Ibeju-Lekki masterplan, the area is zoned for residential use. This means that what people used it for is not contradicting the masterplan but it’s contradicting the intending plan on the acquisition map.

Also, it was further discovered that the victims of the demolition, just like several others before them, had bought their pieces of land from the omo-onile with the assurance that the title perfection (excision process) was being processed.

Owners of the demolished houses were told that the land was “free”, a popular (but unofficial) terminology used on the field by persons presenting themselves as surveyors to the public and potential land buyers.

They were also deceived into believing that the excision of the area was under processing at the government secretariat thereby giving them false confidence to part with their money.

Speaking on the matter, the MD of a real estate verification and investment company based in Lagos, FloraHomes Global Consult Ltd. Nurudeen Omotosho, said no land is free in Lagos.

He explained that aside from the already existing and confirmed Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) and Gazetted/Excision Lands, the government officially reserves the power to enter any land it deems vacant to be officially used for a greater benefit.

NTDA, as a government agency, is saddled with the responsibility of planning and allocating vacant lands to private developers to ensure growth and proper planning.

“Regardless of the several existing buildings in a lot of areas without good and reliable titles, the government, through the NTDA and other similarly relevant agencies, see these areas as government land and can allocate them for schemes and private sector development programmes. Any development on such land will therefore be regarded as illegal and will be subject to demolition,” Omotosho explained.