These people (NRC officials) have finished me. There is nothing my children and I will eat again. As you can see, my source of livelihood has just been destroyed by the Railway Corporation. I don’t know where to start again. As I am talking to you, I don’t have anything again…We are not aware of any rent paid by the occupants of the illegal structures.
So, everything has ended today,” Mrs Adijat Olowonyo, 76, uttered in hushed tone as she sat hopelessly on the rubbles of her wooden shelter demolished by a task force working on the orders of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).
Her son, Monsuru, 32, and three grandchildren, who lived in the shanty with her, burrowed through the debris to pick any valuable materials left under the heap of logs and plywood. Looking dazed and forlorn, Mrs Olowonyo, a petty trader, wept in silence as the bulldozer ripped through a row of shanties, leaving a trail of wreckage in a neighbourhood she has lived ‘comfortably’ for 35 years.
“I don’t know where to go from here,” Mrs Olowonyo retorted when the reporter asked what her next move was.
Apparently helpless, she said: “I knew this place does not belong to me, but I did not know I will leave railway line in this (embarrassing) manner.”
Mrs Olowonyo, who is a native of Ifo Local Government Area in Ogun State, said: “I will return to my village.”
Had she been given ample time to prepare for the demolition, she said she would have suffered minimal loss, because she would have moved her belongings out peaceably to a safe location. But, the notice was short, just as the loss she suffered was incalculable.
This aptly described the tears, pain, agony and anxiety of residents of railway, following the demolition of illegal structures and shanties built along rail track. No fewer than 2,000 shanties have been demolished in the exercise, which began from railway corridors in Mushin to Yaba, Surulere, Oshodi, Ikeja, Iju-Ishaga, Agbado and Alakuko, among others.
The demolition was carried out by NRC Committee for Removal of Illegal Structures led by Mr Anthony Ochuko Onyokoko.
At Mushin axis, the demolition started at 8:00 a.m. when many of the traders were yet to open for business.
The exercise is to pave the way for the commencement of the 155-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge modern rail project of the Federal Government, which was launched in February by the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
Managing Director of the NRC, Fidet Okhiria, at a press conference said no “illegal structure” built within 50 feet from the railway line would be spared by the corporation’s bulldozers, pointing out that only property owners with valid documents would be compensated.
Victims’ painful laments
Before the demolition, the railway corridors were dotted with brick and wooden structures, which served as shelters for deprived families and vagabonds. The entire perimeter of the railway corridors used to be separated from the residential area by iron fence placed 50 feet away from the rail track.
As human activities increased around the corridors, the iron fence was pulled down and shanties were raised along the track, leaving a dangerous distance of about four feet away from the rail track. Crimes also thrived in the neighbourhood, because it housed criminals and smokers of Indian hemp.
Some of the residents converted the space for trading, building makeshift shops and kiosks. However, the residents did not just move to occupy the space illegally. They claimed the NRC gave them “informal approval” to build the structures along the railway corridors.
Southwest Report gathered that some of the residents began living on the railway line in the early 1960s and paid regular rent and lease to the railway corporation.
Pa Ebenezer Ogunyemi, whose three-room wooden shelter, was pulled down by the NRC’s bulldozer, claimed he usually paid rent to “designated official” of the corporation. In tears, Ogunyemi was hapless when the structures were pulled down by the NRC.
A 39-year-old single mother of four, who identified herself as Iya Ibeji, said railway line became a new abode for her after she was ejected from her one-room apartment in nearby Akinbode Street. She said she paid rent to the railway corporation through a third party, which initially got NRC’s approval to build the structure.
Iya Ibeji said: “I have been rendered homeless. There is no place in which my children and I will sleep again. Since my husband abandoned us many years ago, we have been surviving on the profit I made from my petty trade. I was ejected from a one-room apartment and I moved to this place some four years ago to start another life. Now that they have demolished everywhere, I don’t know where to go from here. I can’t afford to pay rent for a single room, because houses in Mushin are expensive.”
Traders count losses
Traders along the demolished railway corridors could not be consoled as they counted their losses. Mrs Kabirat Adeniji, 48, who operated a wholesale store of assorted drinks, rolled on the ground as her three concrete shops were pulled down by the bulldozer. She said she had recently stocked her shops with goods worth N500, 000.
Mrs Adeniji, who said she rented the three shops 18 years ago, said: “These people (NRC officials) have finished me. There is nothing my children and I will eat again. As you can see, my source of livelihood has just been destroyed by the Railway Corporation. I don’t know where to start again. As I am talking to you, I don’t have anything again.”
Mrs Bola Jacob, another trader, who opened a grocery shop in the railway corridor the previous week before the demolition, put her loss at N380, 000, because she did not have the opportunity to move her wares to a safe place.
She said: “I moved to this place in early April, after paying two sets of rents; one to the landlord of the house which my shop is attached to and the other to a railway corporation official. If I had known the government is ready to demolish the structures on railway line, I would not have paid for the shop. I have lost close to N380, 000 worth of goods, because the demolition happened suddenly. I appeal to the government to help me, because I have lost everything I invested in the business.”
Pelumi Aluko, a hairdresser, was lucky. She had moved all her machinery and other handy equipment out of the wooden shanty before the NRC’s bulldozer got to the spot. She, however, regretted paying rent to an NRC official days before the demolition.
Fifty-Four-year-old
mosque, churches gone
While traders and residents lamented their losses, members of religious houses built on the railway corridors gathered to take stock of cost of the demolition. No fewer than eight churches, three mosques and two preparatory schools were reduced to rubbles in the exercise.
Imam of a 54-year-old Orire Mosque demolished at Tinuola axis of the railway line, Alhaji Abdulazeez Ajetunmobi, said the mosque was built on the approval of the NRC.
He said: “This mosque was built in 1963 and there was no prior notice for the demolition. We only saw the NRC officials a day before the demolition was carried out. They came to mark residential buildings and shops along the rail track for demolition. We were not told the demolition would be carried out the second day. Had we been notified, we would have started to relocate the mosque’s properties.
I could not quantify in cash the amount we lost after the mosque was pulled down. Only last month, we spent N2.5 million to renovate the mosque and carried out some capital projects. We bought new sound system and mordernised the ceiling. These cost the mosque’s worshippers millions. Everything is gone now.”
Coordinator of a demolished Sunday school of a Pentecostal church adjacent to the mosque, Mr Israel Komolafe, said the exercise took the church by surprise. He said the church had been occupying the space for 16 years and had been paying monthly rent to NRC officials. He said the corporation did not give notice to vacate the space.
Prophet Eri Atobatele whose Cherubim and Seraphim (Ijo Temidire) Church was marked for demolition said he paid N275, 000 six months ago to rent the property. He appealed to NRC not to demolish the church, since it is far from the rail track.
Arguments ensued between the NRC officials and a septuagenarian, Pa Madamidola Aremu, whose property, leased to Cherubim and Seraphim Church, was marked for demolition. Aremu, who claimed to have Queen’s Conveyance approving the perimeter of the property, accused NRC of encroachment on his property. He threatened to sue the corporation if the property is demolished.
Notorious crime spot pulled down
The demolition is probably a blessing in disguise for those living around Mushin Train Station. What is known as HQ – a dangerous smokers’ spot – was pulled down during demolition. Until it was cleared, HQ used to be dangerous corner for unwary passersby. It was den of narcotics abusers, smokers of Indian hemp and notorious bandits, who carried out their nefarious activities in broad daylight.
Southwest Report learnt that the Lagos police taskforce had cleared the crime site many times in the last 20 years, but the effort was not successful because of the connivance of property owners around the axis whose houses were used as safe haven to store the unlawful items.
The clearing of HQ may have excited the residents and frequent passersby, but it may be a temporary relief until the NRC permanently barricades its corridors from the buildings around the axis.
‘They gave us short notice’
The victims complained that the railway corporation did not give them enough time to remove their properties and relocate before the demolition. Some of them could not pick their belongings while the bulldozer cleared the illegal shanties and concrete structures.
Southwest Report gathered that the occupants got notice to vacate the shanties less than 24 hours before the exercise was carried out. It was also gathered that the NRC officials were in the area the previous day to mark the illegal structures for demolition. It took many of the traders by surprise when the NRC officials led a contingent of riot policemen to carry out the demolition the following day.
While they admitted the corridors belong to the NRC, the affected persons accused the corporation of insensitivity, saying NRC was wrong not to give them time to relocate after its officials collected monthly rent from them.
Some of them said the NRC’s Station Manager in Mushin, whose name was identified as Mr Ojo, collected rent in cash on behalf of the corporation.
Mrs Aluko, a hairdresser, said her shop was demolished a day after she paid N2, 000 to the NRC official as rent. She wondered why the occupants were not notified of the demolition before they paid the rents.
In protest, some of the traders besieged the Mushin station of the NRC to get back the rents paid to Ojo, who allegedly ran away on sighting the crowd.
