Some of the affected people have lamented suddenly seeing bulldozers arrive when they were ill-prepared, and how they had to watch helplessly as the authorities destroyed their belongings.
Amnesty International Nigeria, a non-governmental human rights organisation, has asked Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration in Lagos State to stop the “wanton forced evictions and years of attacks on poor communities in the state”.
The organisation said this on Monday in a short statement posted on its X handle, saying that the state government is punishing the poor communities for the state’s urban planning failures.
Amnesty International Nigeria lamented that forced evictions make the affected people lose everything they have, including their livelihoods, possessions and in some cases, their lives.
“Lagos state government must halt wanton forced evictions and end years of attacks on poor communities — who are being punished for the state’s urban planning failures.
“Forced evictions mean people lose everything – their livelihoods, their possessions and in some cases their lives,” the organisation said.
This comes as the state government has continued to embark on demolitions of what it described as shanties in illegal locations across the state.
The state has in the last few years been in the news for the demolition of low-income communities, causing the displacement of hundreds of people yearly.
The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, regularly gives updates on how the government uses bulldozers and government agents to demolish shops and residential buildings in communities in the state over one alleged environmental offence or the other.
Some of the affected people have lamented suddenly seeing bulldozers arrive when they were ill-prepared, and how they had to watch helplessly as the authorities destroyed their belongings.
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