Lagos Demolition: LSJ demands Justice for 9,000 displaced Nigerians

Stanley Ihedigbo

League for Social Justice (LSJ) has condemned the Lagos State Government’s demolition of the Ilaje-Otumara community, displacing 9,000 Nigerians, and is demanding justice, compensation, and accountability for the alleged human rights violations.

In a letter to the National Assembly, dated March 10, 2025, signed by Dr. LaBode Obanor for the organization, LSJ described the incident as a “state-orchestrated assault” on the fundamental rights of over 9,000 Nigerians who were violently displaced without alternative shelter, compensation, or due process.

The demolition, which was carried out in violation of a 2017 Lagos High Court ruling, has left many residents destitute and without access to basic amenities.

The LSJ has demanded immediate action from the National Assembly, including emergency intervention to provide shelter and relief materials, a full-scale legislative inquiry into the incident, and a national housing policy that prioritizes the needs of Nigerian citizens.

The Ilaje-Otumara community, a century-old settlement, has been a victim of Lagos’s real estate gold rush, where the pursuit of profit has trumped the most basic human rights.

The LSJ has vowed to continue fighting for social justice and holding those in power accountable for their actions.

He noted that the residents—men, women, children, and
the elderly—were met not with compassion or legal recourse, but with armed police officers, hired
thugs wielding machetes, and bulldozers sent to erase their existence.

“These are our fellow citizens,
driven from their homes like criminals, stripped of their dignity, and left destitute in the streets. This brazen act of state violence is in direct violation of a 2017 Lagos High Court ruling that expressly
prohibited such evictions without resettlement or compensation. The Lagos State Government’s disregard for the rule of law—choosing instead to cater to real estate profiteers at the expense of the most vulnerable—is nothing short of criminal.

“Who gave the order to ignore the court? Who benefits from this forced displacement? Who profits from the suffering of the poor? Lagos has become a city where the poor are treated as pawns in a real estate gold rush, where the pursuit of profit trumps the most basic human rights, and where government institutions serve private
interests rather than the people they swore to protect,” he stressed.