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Babatunde Titilola reports on the devastating impact of a recent state government demolition exercise that reduced two once-vibrant communities in Lagos State to rubble
Muyideen was unprepared for the scene that greeted him in the early hours of September 15, 2024. As he awoke on that Sunday morning, hoping to savour a few extra hours of sleep, he was jolted awake by crashes and piercing screams, shattering any chance of a peaceful rest.
In Oko-Baba and other communities within the Ebute-Metta area of Yaba Local Council Development Authority in Lagos State, families were startled awake by the jarring noise of massive excavators demolishing buildings.
The terrifying sound of residents’ screams filled the air as they stood helplessly, watching their homes and businesses being destroyed.
“They did not send any notice. Nobody knew what was happening,” Muyideen told this reporter. “They just came suddenly and started destroying everything. Nobody could ask them anything.”
On September 14, the Lagos State Building Control Agency revealed that it had initiated the clearance of shanties in the Oko-Baba area of Ebute-Metta. As gathered, the purpose of this action was to enhance urban development and mitigate environmental and security challenges.
However, the residents of affected areas did not welcome the Agency’s activity with open arms. Instead, they counted their losses as millions of property were destroyed and thousands left displaced.
For Muyideen, a lifetime of dreams and struggle unraveled in an instant. His heart pounded as he watched helplessly the roar of monstrous machines filling the air, ripping through the workshop he had poured his soul into.
His tools and livelihood shattered before his eyes. He had worked so hard, and sacrificed so much, yet now all he could do was stand there, frozen in grief, tears streaming down his face, powerless to stop the destruction of everything he had built.
“My workshop was completely gone and my house was partly demolished,” he said. “The place I was living with my family before was also demolished. I left that place so my brothers could stay there but now it is gone too. My family has lost everything.
“Many of the machines I use were destroyed. Some are missing. Everything I lost would be going into millions of naira. I have not settled down since Sunday. It has been a difficult week for my family.”
During the demolition, Muyideen and a few others scrambled to save whatever they could, clutching the remnants of their hard work as they made their way to a nearby school.
The school management, in an act of kindness, allowed them to camp there and continue working if possible. But despite their efforts, it would never be enough. The space, the tools, and the spirit felt like a shadow of what once was.
Like Muyideen, many residents of Oke-Baba long to escape their past, but the haunting memories cling to them, refusing to fade. The pain of what they’ve endured lingers in every corner of their thoughts.
“It will never be the same,” Muyideen said, his voice heavy with grief. “The government has done what it wanted to do. Whatever they still want to do, they should do it. I am not hoping for anything from them.”
Trading blame
Saturday PUNCH gathered that the demolition was tragically followed by a fire incident in the plank market within Oko-Baba. In the aftermath, several traders accused the state government of intentionally starting the fire to force residents out, deepening the sense of betrayal and loss within the community.
Several traders who spoke with this reporter suggested that setting the market on fire would make it easier for the government to carry out the demolition, as it would leave no room for resistance. Without their livelihoods or homes intact, the traders felt powerless to stop what seemed like an inevitable takeover.
Like Oka-Baba, like Aiyetoro
As the dust settled that Sunday, the air remained heavy with the echoes of despair, leaving behind urgent questions about the cost of urban development and the sanctity of home.
After the demolition in Oko-Baba, neighbouring communities thought the cup had passed over them.
However, the next day, Monday, September 15, was a public holiday to celebrate the birth of the Islamic prophet Mohammed. The joy of the Muslim faithful in the Aiyetoro community soon drowned out by the roar of machines as they resumed their destruction.
Ayetoro, known to be the first Ilaje settlement in Lagos State, dating back to 1912, was plunged into mourning. Residents scrambled for safety, desperately trying to salvage whatever property they could carry.
This reporter learnt that homes and businesses worth millions were reduced to rubble during the demolition, leaving the community in shock and despair.
“It was a scary scene. I looked at my house turning to small stones and broken sticks and could not do anything,” Seunfunmi told Saturday PUNCH.
Seunfunmi, a fashion designer who had just relocated to Aiyetoro to be closer to her shop, was still heartbroken as she spoke to this reporter on Thursday. Now staying with a friend in Oshodi, she felt lost and uncertain, with no clear plan on how to begin again after the devastation.
“I lost the house, my clothes, my work materials, and the shop I rented,” she said. While Seunfunmi has a place to stay till she can get back on her feet, 26-year-old Omolara Anuoluwapo roams around and sleeps wherever night meets her.
She said, “I lived alone and was working in a church not far from Aiyetoro. I was able to pack my clothes before they reached where my house was. I do not have where I am staying. I sleep anywhere I can find safe.”
Children missing
Silifatu Kareem, a 56-year-old woman, is one of the many victims affected by the recent demolition. She stood helplessly as her home was destroyed, and now she is desperately seeking the whereabouts of her four-year-old daughter who went missing during the invasion.
In the chaos of residents fleeing and trying to salvage their belongings, she lost sight of her daughter. Since that Sunday, she has been searching frantically, desperate and heartbroken, with no sign of her child.
“I have never seen a thing like this before. I am an old woman and this government wants me to suffer. Instead of using the excavators to scare us and allow us to pack our property, they did not.
“They destroyed my home with everything in it. They even allowed some houses to burn. Since that Sunday, I have been looking for my four-year-old daughter, Eve. Please, save me.
“I sleep outside under the bridge. They said they are even coming to chase us away from here,” she told this reporter as tears filled her eyes.
One of the people trying to console Kareem was Jamiu, a 38-year-old furniture maker. Jamiu, who worked hard to care for his family, now fears a bleak future. He does not know where to start as his workshop was destroyed along with his work equipment.
“I have a small place here where I sleep, but my family lives in Alagbado. I sleep in my place here (Aiyetoro) when I am too tired to go home after work or when I have worked overnight.
“I was going home to see my family on that Sunday when they called me and told me that the government was demolishing houses and workshops. By the time I got here, they had destroyed everything,” Jamiu lamented.
“I do not know how to take care of my family. Where do I start from? They said they are still coming tomorrow to chase the remaining people away.”
Kareem is not the only one going through the pain of looking for a child. thirty-four-year-old Idris is yet to find his four-year-old boy, Hazeem. The boy went missing when the police tear-gassed the area where Idris and four other children were staying during the demolition on Sunday.
The generator repairman was able to save his property and remove the roofing sheets of his house before his house was demolished. However, when the police tear-gassed the area, his son went missing.
“I have two kids. The one that is missing is just four years’ old,” the father of two said. “When they started demolishing, I was able to remove the roofing sheets of my house. I was seated in front of the house, waiting for them. Where I was sitting, there were four small children with me, including my kids.
“I asked my child if he was hungry and he said he wanted to eat. So, I asked the oldest one among them to buy food from a nearby stall. When I saw that the policemen were converging around the area where the stall was, I called the boy to come back.
“I decided to go and buy the food myself. I asked the oldest boy to watch over the other three kids. While buying the food, the policemen fired teargas and scattered everywhere. I ran through the smoke to check on the children. When I got there, I only saw three. My boy was not there.”
Idris could not believe his eyes. He searched everywhere to look for his child. His efforts were futile when the police started burning the whole area.
‘They broke my leg’
This reporter spoke with 41-year-old Monday Okpa, who narrowly escaped death. On Sunday morning, as he headed to his sawmill workshop, the police stormed his home and assaulted him.
“I was inside my house on that day. My boss called me and said I should enter our office and load planks from the factory into our truck for delivery. Immediately I stepped out of my house, I met some policemen.
“They asked who I was and I introduced myself. My wife and children were already panicking. All of a sudden, one of the officers picked a bottle and broke my leg with it,” Okpa narrated as he held onto a plastic staff for balance.
As his family looked in horror, Okpa sighed and shook his head. He does not know when he will recover or be ready to work and provide for his wife and children.
‘Not always in public interest’
A land recovery attorney, Ayo Ademiluyi, told Saturday PUNCH that the state government had a particular interest in the area. He explained that similar agendas had been executed in other communities, which were later transformed into high-end estates, accessible only to the wealthy.
He said, “We have pushed the blame of demolitions on the government several times but they have always denied. But it is their agencies that conduct these exercises. They even committed arson in Oko-Baba. There is always a hidden reason behind some of these demolitions. The location of Aiyetoro is beneath the Third Mainland Bridge, a centre of attraction.
“You can easily draw the attention of investors who want to buy land. The surprising thing is that they do not develop these demolished areas for public interest like building universities or hospitals. They (the government) hand over these lands to their friends to develop and make money while selling. There are many estates like that.
“For instance, Periwinkle Estate sells for $600 per square foot. Imagine what that place would go for now there is inflation. They want to make Aiyetoro another hot business where people interested in exploring the Lagos lagoon would not mind paying millions.”
Ademiluyi’s claims were confirmed by a private investigator. According to him, the state government is fond of displacing residents from communities for business reasons.
“They target places that can fetch them money, then relocate or force the people to another place. While developing the area they demolished, they expect that the place they moved the people too will also be developed. So, their demolition sometimes is to develop other very rural areas so that those places will become expensive,” the investigator said.
Lagos govt responds
The Director of Press and Public Affairs of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences, Raheem Gbadeyanka, confirmed the development and added that, “the government has responded and the Ministry of Information will provide all the information you need.”
Responding to inquiries by this reporter, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, said the demolition was necessary to safeguard the lives of people and meet the requirements of the state’s urban development project.
He explained that those being removed from Ayetoro were those who expanded from Okobaba after the government had relocated the timber traders to another place.
He said, “There was a mutual agreement between the Okobaba timber traders and the government. The government spent billions to relocate them to Agbowa Ikosi and provided a new market, clinic, and about 350 units of houses.
“Okobaba is now very clean and no longer an eyesore. Government has been trying to achieve that for the past 25 years. It is part of the government’s urban renewal regeneration program. People also have the right to live well and enjoy a good environment.
“But before they moved, the traders were already expanding. You could see them toward the Third Mainland Bridge building shacks and expanding. Apart from that place being an eyesore, it also constituted a danger to the place. When you do timber business, there will be sawdust and fire. This may cause a fire incident and it is not healthy.
“Some of those from Okobaba started spreading to the Aiyetoro community. So, it is a kind of spillover from Okobaba. They were not supposed to have their homes in that place in the first place. The first thing people should do when they hear about demolition in a particular area is to look at the masterplan of the place.”
Omotoso said the area in which residents constructed shacks in Aiyetoro was surrounded by high-tension wires which, if triggered, could result in fire incidents.
“They should ask whether the demolished area is a place where people are supposed to live. Do those who live there have papers? The government cannot just demolish people’s homes. Not to mention that the buildings in this area are shacks they just put together to deface the place all in the name of wanting to live there.
“Also, that particular area is built under high-tension wires. Should there be any incident resulting in loss of lives, these people will blame the government. So, that is why the government is removing them. I have spoken to the agencies in charge. The government is not removing them from the whole place. They are only removing those living above the high-tension wire and those spreading from Okobaba,” he said.
