Residents protested and met with government officials, who assured them that they would not be evicted.
Civil society organisations in Nigeria have condemned the forced eviction of over 10,000 inhabitants at Ilaje Otumara and Baba Ijora communities in Lagos Mainland warning that a total breakdown of trust in the government was imminent.
In a joint statement signed by various civil society organisations and community leaders, the CSOs decried the "kamikaze-style mass forced eviction" that violates subsisting court orders and years of positive engagement between the community and government agencies.
According to the statement, the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) had marked hundreds of homes and businesses for demolition on February 11, 2025, despite a court order protecting the community from displacement without prior consultation and resettlement.
Residents protested and met with government officials, who assured them that they would not be evicted.
However, on March 7, 2025, LASBCA officials, police, and "area boys" armed with machetes descended on the community, beating residents and demolishing homes.
The forced eviction the statement noted has left thousands of residents displaced and sleeping outside, with many more facing an uncertain future.
The statement warns that this eviction "portends a total breakdown of any trust in the Government around land governance and urban development to the detriment of the nation."
The CSOs that signed the statement called on the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led Lagos State Government and the Nigerian government to immediately halt the forced eviction, provide relief to evictees, and rebuild the communities for the benefit of the residents.
The statement partly read: "This forced eviction is as heartless as any - taking place in the midst of the holy month of Ramadan, during Lent, among celebrations of International Women's Day, and during the worst economic crisis Nigeria has seen in decades - and its impacts on residents will be as in all the uncountable forced evictions that have taken place across Lagos and Nigeria from the recent to the distant past.
"Ordinary citizens are left without shelter to guard their belongings and their bodies against looting, sexual assault, weather and mosquitos. Without any preparation, it takes days, weeks, months or even years to find new stable accommodation. Once landlords are turned to tenants and squatters. The owners of profitable businesses are forced to hawk on the streets.
"Families are separated, forced to send their children in different places while the parents seek work where they can. Children have no means to continue their schooling, worsening Nigeria's status as having the highest number of out of school children in the world. Mental and physical health suffers.
"The tragedy of this particular case, however, goes beyond all these well-documented impacts that come with every forced eviction; it also demonstrates the total reversal of a years' long journey toward potentially better urban development practices that emerged following the mass struggles of organized informal settlements and waterfront dwellers in Lagos.
"Indeed, Ilaje Otumara was one of dozens of waterfront communities that joined together in 2016 to demonstrate and eventually bring action against the Lagos State Government under the administration of Akinwumi Ambode - which resulted in a precedent judgment from the Lagos State High Court that forced evictions such as were carried out in Otodo Gbame from 2016-17 violate the right to dignity enshrined in Section 34 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution. The permanent injunction against displacement without prior consultation and resettlement that also came out of this case protects Ilaje Otumara and other waterfront informal settlements to today."
The statement added, "Indeed, since mid-2021, Ilaje Otumara has been positively engaging with LASURA around a planned partnership with the community to carry out regeneration in which residents were meant to be part and parcel. In late 2021, the community set up a regeneration committee to engage with LASURA and potential developers; in mid-2022, the community conducted its own census, numbering 2,808 households with a population of at least 12,313 residents; in March 2023, Governor Sanwo-Olu campaigned to Otumara based on the promise that this project would continue; and just after the election, the community conducted an opinion survey to identify the upgrading priorities of residents and feed into an expected participatory planning process.
"Since mid-2023, however, the reverse course on this positive progress has become increasing evident - starting with the forced eviction of Oworonshoki communities that had been included in the initial planning for the Kosofe Model City Plan, and continuing with the demolition of Orisunmibare in Apapa in February 2024, Otto communities in March 2024, and Oko Baba and parts of Aiyetoro communities in September 2024.
"Like the current forced eviction of Ilaje Otumara and Baba ljora, these forced evictions evidence the recapturing of the machinery of government by an oligarchy of powerful land-owning families and corrupt private developers around the State.
"Much worse, the current forced eviction at Ilaje Otumara signals a return to a time we remember all too well when ordinary citizens under threat of eviction could not count on the word of the Lagos State Government, but must rather assume that Government assurances mean nothing when powerful interests have targeted their homes to become vacant sellable land.
"We condemn the ongoing forced eviction in no uncertain terms; and we call on the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government that stands behind it to heed this warning and reverse the dangerous trend of recent - which can lead nowhere good - starting with an immediate halt of the forced eviction of Ilaje Otumara and Baba ljora, provision of immediate relief for evictees, and the total rebuilding of these communities for the benefit of evictees."
The CSOs that signed are: Megan S. Chapman & Mariam Alo for Justice & Empowerment Initiatives (JEI); Mohammed Zanna, Bisola Akinmuyiwa, Kolawole Abiodun Nurudeen & Jude Ojo for Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation; Betty Abah for Centre for Children's Health, Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE); Olamide Udoma-Ejorh for Lagos Urban Development Initiative (LUDI); Abiodun Baiyewu for Global Rights and Yemi Adamolekun for Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria.