Residents of the predominantly poor Makoko area of Lagos on Wednesday mounted a stout resistance to police officers deployed to evict them from their homes. Despite a show of firepower by the well-armed police, the residents’ strong resistance forced the officers to retreat to their base in Yaba, with their mission unaccomplished.
Residents said the police had rained bullets on them, but they had refused to be cowed and driven from their homes.
“They [police] shot at us in an effort to eject us from our homes, but we will not give up just like that,” said one of the residents, a civil servant.
The policemen descended on the community at the instance of the Lagos State Government which needed the police to intimidate the residents as state officials carried out the demolition of homes.
Yesterday’s foiled demolition was meant to follow a pattern of past demolitions by the Lagos State government of the homes of low-income Nigerians. The annexed land is then subsequently handed to privileged Nigerians, including former Governor Bola Tinubu, for upscale real estate developments.
In July 2012, the police had killed a deputy traditional chief, Timothy Azinpono, during a similar process of forcible demolition of houses on the Makoko waterfront. The residents who resisted yesterday’s ejection bid do not live on the waterfront.
The residents said they had lived in the area for more than one hundred years before the Lagos State Government suddenly woke up to order them to quit their homes without making any plans to resettle them.
A resident claimed that police firepower had killed some resisters, but SaharaReporters was unable to independently confirm any casualties as at press time.
Eyewitnesses reported that the community’s strong resistance forced the police to withdraw to their base at the Yaba police station in the Adekunle area. “From their station, the policemen continued shooting at the resisters,” said one witness.
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