AMNESTY INT'L SAYS THIS ABOUT FASHOLA, As if I Knew: Amnesty alleges eviction of 9000 in Lagos. Tens of thousands of Nigerians risk being made homeless as part of redevelopment
plans in Lagos, Amnesty International said in a report. The rights group said 9,000 people have already been forced from their homes during the first phase of the plans.
“The effects of February’s forced eviction have been devastating,” said Amnesty’s Oluwatosin Popoola.
A local official told the BBC that displaced
residents would get priority when new
houses became available.
Slums have sprung up all over Lagos as a result of people pouring into the
overcrowded city in search of work.
Amnesty has published satellite images
showing what it said was “a densely
populated area’’ that was razed to the
ground in February.
The group said it took the images to
disprove claims by government officials that the affected area was a rubbish dump.
Amnesty said residents were now sleeping in the open, at risk of disease and bandits, and that thousands of people have lost their livelihoods along with their homes. The report calls on Lagos authorities to halt the forced evictions. According to the BBC, the sight of bulldozers moving into slum areas at dawn and flattening people’s homes is a familiar scene, happening more and more in cities across the continent.
Bringing some order to this chaotic city of more than 15 million people is a huge
challenge for the state government, our
correspondent says.
Critics say the wealth gap is widening as
those forced from their homes can only
dream of owning an apartment in the new developments that are replacing the city’s
slums.
“We want the state government to
remember that we are not animals,” Tunde
Aworetam, a pastor in the affected
community, is quoted as telling a news
conference.
Commissioner for Housing Bosun Jeje, told
the BBC the authorities were trying to
improve the living conditions of the people
in the area.
“I went there personally before we cleared
the place and I can tell you if you look at the
video and you look at the documentary
before we cleared the place you couldn’t
find a single housing structure except the
shanties that were there,” he said.
But he said the government had been
talking to the people and “addressing the
problems”.
He said the displaced residents would be
given priority when new houses become
available for rent.