By Precious Igbonwelundu 

Aggrieved villagers in Oreki community, Ibeju Lekki, Lagos State, have decried the ‘unlawful’ demolition of their properties and forcible eviction from their lands by officials of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit (Taskforce).

They accused the government of land grabbing; saying over 300 houses were demolished at night by the Taskforce barely three days after they got a seven-day eviction notice. They claimed the notice was given on August 17.

The victims, who addressed reporters in Ajah, said over a thousand people have become homeless because of government’s action.

The Baale of Orike village, Chief Apena Adekunle, said the government had been eyeing their land since 2015.

He said: “They told us they wanted to build Charity University here in 2015 but all the families, about 15, sued them and ever since, there was no action from the government.

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“It is really sad what they did now. We want the public to save us from the government.”

A spokesman for the aggrieved villagers, Murphy Adebare, said their houses were demolished and lands taken forcibly while they were still trying to sue government over the eviction notice.

He said: “The Taskforce came about 2am and brought the excavator to destroy our properties. Three hundred houses were destroyed in less than 24 hours. The Lagos State government claims it owns the land, but we bought our lands from the customary land  owners, which, according to the law, are the communities, villages and families.

“We all bought our lands from about 27 families including Oreki, Arowolo, Olowu, Olowopeju and Ogunbawo families. Some people bought theirs about 20 to 30 years ago, but I bought mine about nine years ago.

“We have gone to the ministry but they sent us away saying the government wants to use the land to build Charity University but they are not doing that. We have sent our message to the governor but they insisted it’s a public land and the government has taken over so nobody should do anything there.

“After our properties were demolished, we went to the Epe High Court and got an injunction that nobody, including the land owners and the state government, should work or do anything on the land unless the case is concluded. But the government has refused to abide by the injunction.

“The state has started selling the lands to private individuals at N12 million per 500 square meters. The CofOs were also revoked.

“We implore the government to obey the court order and maintain status quo. This land has never belonged to them; government has no right to collect land from someone and sell to another person. Government should return our land to us and pay compensations to those whose properties were destroyed. We will take this protest to Alausa, tollgate and the governor’s office.”

Chairman of the Taskforce Yinka Egbeyemi denied knowledge of the incident. According to him, it was probably an eviction carried out by another government agency. He said it was not possible for the Taskforce to issue a seven-day eviction notice and turn around to demolish people’s properties on the third day.

“We even allow extensions. If we give an initial notice of say 21 days, we can allow up today 10 days or more extension. What you should know is that people blame Taskforce for everything. Sometimes, we do not even have any knowledge of what they are talking about. Like this particular one, I do not know about it.”