Residents of Ifeoluwa Railway Community Development Association, Ebute Meta, Lagos State, have appealed to the state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to relocate them as they will be affected by a proposed drainage project in the community.
The Legal Officer of a non-profit organisation, Spaces for Change, Patrick Allam, in a letter dated July 25, said more than 20,000 people, including women and children, would be displaced by the project.
The letter partly read, “We write to draw your attention to the plight of the communities affected by the proposed drainage construction. The project is timely and laudable.
“We understand the environmental benefits that will accrue when it is successfully completed. Spaces for Change, by this medium, urges you to take all necessary steps to ensure humanitarian consideration to resettle or compensate affected members of the communities.
“Houses in the communities are largely makeshift structures. However, residents are well organised and law-abiding citizens of Lagos State. Recent efforts at providing decent housing for the residents and turning the communities into a micro city are yet to materialise.
“While the communities were gleefully looking forward to better living conditions, about 100 residents of the communities were gripped with incertitude when the Lagos State Ministry of Environment served them with contravention notice and promised to demolish their homes.”
The NGO’s Community Relations Officer, Kehinde Aderogba, told newsmen on Tuesday that a walkway to be built after the drainage construction would displace the residents.
She said, “In a meeting held between the government officials and residents, it was said that after they had built the drainage, they would build a walkway 15 metres to the right, and 15 metres to the left. If done, this will affect the residents on both sides.
“The government of Lagos State needs to strike a sincere balance between the need for environmental infrastructure and the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of Mainland residents to life, dignity and shelter. We hope to move beyond the rhetoric of making Lagos a smart city to making it a just city.”
The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotosho, stated that the government had never failed to compensate residents who had necessary papers for their property.
He said, “I don’t know anywhere government will compensate residents that are without papers, how will they know they are the rightful owners? How will they know compensation should be paid? Any land acquired by the government is in public interest and when such residents have their papers, the government should compensate them. Let them continue in their appeal to the state governor and we’ll see what can be done.”