Organised residents of informal settlements and members of civil society have condemned the mass forced eviction of the people of Ilaje Otumara and Baba Ijora communities on the Lagos Mainland, claiming that the eviction was carried out in violation of subsisting court orders.
While lamenting that the eviction also violated years of positive engagement and promises of partnership to regenerate the area for the people, the activists warned that the development portends a total breakdown of any trust in the government around land governance and urban development to the detriment of the nation.
On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) entered into Ilaje Otumara and neighbouring Baba Ijora communities in Lagos Mainland and reportedly marked hundreds of homes and business for imminent “removal” within a period of two days. That same day, residents protested to the Lagos Mainland Local Government where the Chairwoman reportedly pledged support for the community.
On February 12, 2025, residents mobilised to Alausa for a peaceful demonstration, appealing to the Governor of Lagos State and the House of Assembly to look into and stop the threatened eviction. The same day, residents went round to deliver letters to all the ministries and agencies responsible for urban development – and ended up over the next two weeks meeting severally with the General Manager of LASBCA.
When LASBCA doubled down on its threat, further meetings were held with the General Manager of the Lagos State Urban Renewal Agency (LASURA), the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development and, finally, the Special Advisor to the Lagos State Governor on Urban Development, who assured the community that they would not be evicted and pledged to instead continue partnership for regeneration.
However, on Friday, March 7, 2025, with no prior warning, LASBCA officials, police, and “area boys” armed with machetes descended on the two communities with a Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) “Black Maria” mobile detention vehicle and up to five excavators, allegedly beating residents and demolishing the entirety of both communities from various directions, paying no heed to whether a building had previously been marked or not.
Journalists from two international media houses were reportedly blocked from entering the area to cover the eviction and one of the journalists was allegedly beaten. The eviction continued from March 8 to 9, 2025, destroying nearly the entirety of both communities, allowing widespread vandalism and looting, and leaving thousands of residents displaced and sleeping outside.
“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 – starting with an immediate halt of the forced eviction of Ilaje Otumara and Baba Ijora, provision of immediate relief for evictees, and the total rebuilding of these communities for the benefit of evictees,” the campaigners said in a statement endorsed by groups like Justice & Empowerment Initiatives (JEI); Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation; Lagos Urban Development Initiative (LUDI); Centre for Children’s Health, Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE); Global Rights; and Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria.
They added: “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.”
According to the CSOs, 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 to 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,” they stated.
They continued: “While Lagos has certainly not been free of demolitions and forced evictions during the intervening years, a new approach to positive engagement between communities like Ilaje Otumara and agencies like LASURA also began to emerge in 2017 and carried forward through successive administrations including the first administration of the current Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
“Pilot projects to demonstrate how better urban development could be practiced in Lagos have been discussed from the Kosofe Model City Plan to a Future Cities-supported regeneration plan developed for the Otto area of Lagos Mainland; and several generations of leadership of LASURA and its parent Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development have tried out a different tone and approach in engaging some communities.
“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 Ijora, 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.”