Hmmm!!!Landing Otodo Gbame, Lekki area of Lagos where the Lagos State Government
led by Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode had been demolishing homes, schools and
worship centers, I taught I was in an area under #Boko Haram siege as seen on
TV.
The
residents of Otodo Gbame, an ancestral, predominantly Egun, fishing settlement
in Lekki on 17th of March, 2017 were shocked seeing Lagos State Task
Force, who said they were on orders from the Lagos State Governor, accompanied
by Military Police and the Nigerian Security and Defense Corps to demolish
their structures (place of settlement).
All the homes, schools, and businesses built on land had been destroyed, rendering an estimated 4,698 residents- including children and the elderly- homeless in a matter of hours. There was no prior notice, no consultation, and no alternative shelter or resettlement offered.
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It
will be recalled that the November demolition of Otodo Gbame has been broadly
condemned as a forced eviction and a gross violation of human rights, including
by the United Nations special Rapporter on adequate housing, amnesty
international and countless others.
On
26th January 2017, Honourable Justice Onigbanjo delivered a landmark
ruling in the case brought by waterfront residents, his lordship found that
demolitions on short notice without provision of alternative shelter constitute
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of the right to dignity
enshrined in section 34 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria and Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
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| CEO, CEE-HOPE NIGERIA, Betty Abah, being interviewed by Simon Ateba of SAN ONLINE NEWS |
Photo credit: Gbemile Oluwatosin, live at the demolition spot.
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