Covered in a stream of sweat as he made for the narrow entrance leading outside the block, Okoli Nwabueze (not real name), cursed and grumbled angrily. He was deep in slumber by the time the fan in his room stopped rolling that afternoon and so couldn’t make it out on time to enjoy cool, ‘precious’ breeze. Lacking proper ventilation, electricity supply was the only means to keep the temperature within the room normal. Last year, when he paid N140, 000 as rent and related charges for 12 months to move into Agboye ‘Estate’, a gigantic structure with over 500 rooms stretching on about four plots of land on Oduntan Street, Ketu, Lagos, this was not what he expected. The situation leaves him deeply frustrated.
“The heat inside my room is crazy,” he said, nodding his head in complete dejection. “There is no ventilation and so whenever there’s power outage the place becomes very hot. This was not what I expected when I paid for the house last year. I never knew I was moving into a prison yard. I can’t use generator or other household appliances even after paying so much as rent. This is really crazy,” he fumed.
Lamentations all the way
Okoli is not the only one burning with rage in this vast and hugely populated building – the poor and extreme conditions of living is getting other tenants deeply concerned, too. Apart from paying N6, 000 as monthly charges for a single room – not more than twice the size of the space inside a commercial bus in Lagos – occupants who agreed to speak with our correspondent after they were assured their identities would be protected for fear of being victimised by the owner of the house, Onamo Agboye, said they are forbidden from using power generators, electric kettles, air conditioners or even host important social gatherings like naming ceremonies or birthdays within the facility. They were assured of constant electricity supply when moving in but they soon found out that the big generator set stationed at a section of the compound is not meant to service their interest but the comfort of the landlord alone. To make matters worse, the only entrance leading in and out of the compound closes at 11:00pm daily. Once the clock ticks, nobody goes in or out anymore, they revealed. In case of an emergency, chaos is inevitable.
“There was this day I was coming from FESTAC and I encountered traffic around Maryland, I didn’t get to Ketu until about 11:30pm. The security men at the gate of the house did not allow me to go in. I explained to them that I was new and that I didn’t know about the time of the closure but they refused to listen to my plea. I slept inside the church opposite the house that day,” Lanre Adamolekun, another tenant toldSaturday PUNCH.
The regimented nature of the building – like a Nazi facility – has left devastating consequences on some occasions. Injuries and heartbreaks have come in different forms.
“My wife almost died from pains after falling into labour around 2:30am. The security men did not open the gate for us until two hours later because they said their boss would be mad at them for opening the gate at such hour of the night. They saw her condition, that she was dying but they refused to consider her pains. By the time we got to the hospital, she had become too weak to push by herself. She had to give birth through a caesarean section . That was the moment I decided that the house was not a place to live,” Anthony Onyekwere told our correspondent in a telephone conversation during the week. He has since relocated his family to the Agric area of Ikorodu, a fast rising town within the metropolis.
During a visit to the house during the week, our correspondent observed that the sanitary conditions were in poor state, while hygiene was also a big issue. In most of the blocks which are constructed only inches away from each other thus making free flow of air almost impossible, at least 12 rooms shared a single toilet and bathroom. On the average, two persons occupy each room, bringing the number of users of a single toilet to 24. An official who works at the building confirmed to our correspondent who posed as a potential tenant that there were presently 370 tenants in the house. Meaning that on the average, there are 740 adults living in the compound. This is aside children and visitors who make frequent stopovers to their loved ones. Unhygienic as this sounds, it is a situation that has existed for a long time and shows no signs of improving soon.
Behind the compound is a vast swamp of stagnant sewage and dirt – the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and other deadly insects that combine to inflict maximum horror on the occupants. The section is also home to snakes, scorpions and other dangerous crawling animals. Together, they make life for many of Agboye’s low-income earning occupants hellish.

wtf!!!