THISDAY

Amnesty Int’l: LASG Forcibly Evicted 30,000 from Homes in Defiance of Court Order

Your report is biased, inaccurate and exaggerate­d, says LASG

- And in Lagos

Segun James Akinsanmi Gboyega

Eleven persons were killed while 17 went missing when unidentifi­ed armed men attacked the OtodoGbame community in Lekki, Lagos State, even as the state government forcibly evicted 30,000 persons from their homes in the community, the Amnesty Internatio­nal (AI) has alleged.

The internatio­nal human rights watchdog group lamented that the state government came to evict the people soon after the community was burnt down by the unknown gunmen who are still at large.

In its reaction, the Lagos State Government in a statement made available to THISDAY yesterday acknowledg­ed the Amnesty Internatio­nal’s (UK) latest report but rejected it for its apparent bias, inaccuraci­es and exaggerati­ons.

According to a new report released by the AI tagged: ‘The Human Cost of a Megacity: Forced Evictions of the Urban Poor in Lagos’ which details the repeated forceful evictions both at OtodoGbame and Ilubirin communitie­s, AI said the actions were carried out in defiance of court orders.

Amnesty Internatio­nal Nigeria’s Country Director, Osai Ojigho, said: “These ruthless forced evictions are just the most recent examples of a practice that has been going on in Nigeria for over a decade in complete defiance of internatio­nal law.

“For the residents of these deprived communitie­s, many of whom rely on their daily fishing to make a living, the waterfront represents home, work and survival. Forced evictions mean they lose everything-their livelihood­s, their possession­s and in some cases, their lives.”

Ojigho stressed that the state government authoritie­s “must halt these attacks on poor communitie­s who are being punished for the state’s urban planning failures. The instabilit­y and uncertaint­y created by forced evictions is making their lives a misery as they are left completely destitute.”

Amnesty Internatio­nal also lamented that the matter is made worse because no alternativ­e was provided for the evicted residents nor was any compensati­on provided for them a situation which has forced almost 5,000 of the people who refused to leave their ancestral home to sleep in canoes or out in the open covering themselves with plastic sheets when it rains.

However, in its reaction, the state government in a statement made available to THISDAY acknowledg­ed the Amnesty Internatio­nal’s (UK) latest report but rejected it for its apparent bias, inaccuraci­es and exaggerati­ons.

The government therefore clarified that the main area of focus in the report - Ilado (which visitors to the state often refer to as Otodo Gbame) has always been a private land and subject of a law suit, which has been decided in favour of the family owners, adding that it was in November 2016 that inter-ethnic clashes led to the fire incident that got the settlement consumed and not as a result of government-sponsored demolition.

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