The President of African Bar Association, Hannibal Uwaifo, has faulted the Lagos state Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu over the demolition of over 400 houses in Oke-Egan Kayetoro Community in Ibeju-Lekki area of the state.
Dr Uwaifo who visited the community recently said that the state government should have been proactive instead of demolishing the structures, which he said has made over 5,000 people homeless.
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“Whatever may be the crime of the people, knowing that you are dealing with over 5,000 lives, over 400 houses in an undeveloped area, where people are developing the roads and the infrastructure, there ought to be a lot of considerations before embarking on massive destruction
“I think that this is not what democracy is all about. I think the Lagos State Government has violated all the norms of democracy, all the norms of good governance. I understand that the story has been changing from place to place about the structures and land being acquired illegally, but demolishing it all is sheer wickedness, it is gestapo tactics, this is not acceptable in a democratic government.”
Barrister Uwaifo added that some people, whose houses were demolished, had not even finished paying for the materials they used for their buildings, and that some were still owing over the structures, wondering where they would go after the demolition.
“Are we not killing the people, who we were voted to govern, people who voted for the government and voted for those in power. Instead of supporting them, we are destroying their houses; the Lagos State Government has a lot of opportunities and means of resolving this issue.”
He noted that the state government must be proactive if they know they have already acquired the land. Most of the times, he said, the lands were taken from those, who had the ancestral homes whereas the Land Use Act, which gives power to the Governors over land has been very controversial from the beginning,” he added.
The legal practitioner explained that the intendment of the Land Use Act was not to give the land to the Governors in their personal capacity, but that it was to give the land to the Governors for the entire people.
“Why do we now use draconian means to acquire land from people, and use draconian means to settle scores with your people who you were elected to govern,” he stated.
Ordeal and lamentation
Lamenting their ordeal, the residents of the destroyed community last Sunday staged a protest on the demolished land to call the attention of the state government to their plight.
The families including children and women who have been sleeping in the cold weather since the incident called on the state government to come to their rescue.
Speaking with some of the children in the community, it was gathered that since the incident, their parents always take them out in the morning to do menial jobs and in the evening, they come back to the community to sleep.
For an aged woman who spoke on anonymity, the story was frightening as she revealed how she used her life saving to build the house demolished by the Lagos State Taskforce.
“I am begging the state government to have mercy on me. I suffered to buy the land and built my house. I do not know why our houses were demolished by the State Government. After the demolition, the landowners made away with all our belongings. Most of our properties were stolen by landowners who sold the lands to us.
“They stole our blocks, rods, granites, documents and still deprive entering into the community,” she cried.
