At about 5am on Sunday, April 9, 2017, a crack team of armed policemen, a Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Special Enforcement Unit invaded Otodo-Gbame, a waterside community in the Lekki area of Lagos State shooting indiscriminately and injuring a 20-year-old man in the process.
The mission of this team of demolishing agents, acting on the orders of Lagos Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, was to forcefully and illegally evict over 4,000 residents of the community who have lived in the area for over a century.
This exercise has been described as “purely a land grab” by the Lagos State government because it is located close to some of the most expensive real estate in Nigeria.
Any government that kills the poor to make the rich happy should be overthrown through legal means. #OtodoGbame pic.twitter.com/C622sfp1OP
— Comrade Deji Adeyanju (@adeyanjudeji) April 10, 2017
HAPPENING NOW: Police monitor as houses are set on fire, people flee in boats from #OtodoGbame #LandGrab #LagosFailureStory #LagosAt50 pic.twitter.com/uhBwZjf0Ds
— JEI (@justempower) April 9, 2017
Hundreds of people have been forced out of their homes by the police in Lagos 📻 https://t.co/yDR81koVAp pic.twitter.com/aK0daLREEM
— BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) April 10, 2017
#OtodoGbame — all residents chased into Lagoon, stranded in boats between Orange Island and a police boat blockade. Nowhere to go. pic.twitter.com/W1nuKpH6wD
— JEI (@justempower) April 9, 2017
The brutal Lagos State agents demolished over 150 homes that morning, in the process, David Aya, a 20-year-old caught a stray bullet.
Several others, including one Monday Idowu, were also said to have sustained gunshot injuries as the team wet the structures with kerosene and set fire to them.
Images shared on social media and the press show that the residents fled their homes in boats as their homes were demolished by the Lagos State government agents.
BBC reports that police were shooting live bullets and tear gas into the community as continued to shoot at the residents even as they fled in boats into the water.
Blood And Tears For Land
It was gathered that some hoodlums had attacked the community on Saturday, killing one Elijah Avonda, 45, a father of ten children.
“On Saturday, Elijah (Avonda) was shot dead by some hoodlums. Today (Sunday), another boy was killed. The task force men started the demolition without any notice. They came in 12am and hundreds of houses were destroyed. They are still on ground, using a bulldozer to pull some structures into the water,” Mr. Zosu told Punch.
“Our children are scattered; many children were found in the river. We are totally confused. We don’t have anywhere to go.”
“I was not around when the incident happened. I received a call around 5am that marine policemen, task force officials and some hoodlums came in and shot continuously. They came with a bulldozer. People started running into the lagoon. David (Aya) was shot dead and Monday (Idowu) was injured,” another resident, Akinrolabu Samuel, told the newspaper.
“The task force men started burning the houses on waterfronts. About 150 structures were burnt down. People are stranded on the lagoon. There was an attack on the community yesterday (Saturday) too, and Elijah was killed in the process. He has two wives and 10 children.”
According to activists working with the community, there are at least two court orders preventing the Lagos State government from going ahead with the planned eviction.
Illegal Shanties Were Demolished – Lagos State
The Lagos State commissioner for information and strategy, Steve Ayorinde, told the press that no resident was killed in the brutal invasion. He also claimed that the demolished structures are “illegal shanties” and that the operation was in obedience to a court ruling.
“Otondogbame belongs to a private family. Since a fire incident happened in November 2016 and the case taken to court and referred to open-door mediation, nothing ought to be in Otondogbame,” Ayorinde said.
“It is the duty of the state government that both parties respect the position of the court, which is to return to status quo.
“Shanties, particularly those that have proven to be a safe haven to criminals and kidnappers, cannot be on our waterfronts. The structures are illegal shanties and they can’t be allowed because of the larger security of the state. “It has been established for months that riverine areas and illegal shanties around our waterfronts have been serving as safe access to illegalities and criminal activities. The government cannot allow that to continue to happen.
“The reported killing took place on Saturday and the task force men were not there. The reported killing was a result of a continuous fight between the two ethnic groups in that area. The government has nothing to do with it and the police have not recorded any death today (Sunday).”
A Lagos State government agency had tweeted on Sunday morning, as the issue began to trend on Twitter, that it would “not succumb to emotional blackmail” over the issue.
The gov will not succumb to emotional blackmail & will stand by this decision because it is in t/ best interest of all residents #OtodoGbame
— Naija Security Focus (@SecurityFocusNG) April 9, 2017
Amnesty International, Activists Condemn Ambode
The demolition of this community and forced eviction of the residents has been greeted with an outcry by the local and international human rights community.
Lagos at 50..what a spectacular show. Shooting at people & leaving them at the mercy of the sea
#Change#Shame #OtodoGbame #LagosAt50 pic.twitter.com/EuxsJBcfes
— Solakuti.com (@Solakutidotcom) April 10, 2017
How many homes @AkinwunmiAmbode provided since 2015? But at #OtodoGbame alone he brutally rendered over 4000 homeless.
— Amnesty International Nigeria (@AmnestyNigeria) April 10, 2017
Gov. @AkinwunmiAmbode has to publicly explain the #OtodoGbame incident. Indiscriminate shooting, killing, arson is not government behaviour. https://t.co/7b3WNgB4Df
— Ben Nwabueze Centre (@NwabuezeCentre) April 10, 2017
First they said #OtodoGbame are not Nigerians, then said they dont have titles, then they said they hide criminals: the excuses 4 brutality.
— Amnesty International Nigeria (@AmnestyNigeria) April 10, 2017
Democracy has failed in Lagos state.. @AkinwunmiAmbode has committed a crime against humanity and God.. #otodogbame
— I_am_omoba (@princeokey10) April 10, 2017
Activists have begun raising money on Go Fund Me to aid the victims of this government action.
https://twitter.com/farouqzaib/status/851356731452137472
