On Monday, homeowners were thrown into despair in the Ayetoro community of the Yaba Local Council Development Area (LCDA) as the Lagos state government used mobile police (Mopol) and some thugs to set some of their houses on fire.

Friday may spell a greater tragedy as the authorities told the rest of them to vacate their houses for an upcoming raid.

Some Ayetoro residents were treated to a rude awakening on Monday as the state government gave them a five-day ultimatum to move out of their houses.

FIJ spoke with the affected homeowners on Thursday.

They explained that they had been living outside their houses since Monday when the authorities gave the notice, and unknown people had stolen or destroyed many of their properties since the government’s sudden demolition started.

FIJ heard that the displacement from Monday has left three children in the area missing.

READ ALSO: Over 100 Now Homeless in Lagos as Gov’t Demolishes Houses Against Court Order

‘WE DID NOT SEE THE DEMOLITION COMING’

Steven Ugbosanmi, a resident in the area, told FIJ that the police and thugs shocked them when they invaded the community to forcefully evict residents from their homes.

He told FIJ that they had only known of a demolition of a nearby sawmill, but things soon escalated and the thugs threw fires at some homes in the community. Some of them were also demolished without notice.

Ugbosanmi said that many in the community were shocked when they saw that the people who came to burn down the sawmill also extended the fire to their communities.

“They did not tell us beforehand that we, like the people of the sawmill, had to relocate, so we weren’t expecting to be faced with force. The people of the sawmill have been relocated to Ikorodu but hadn’t left for some reason. But they didn’t tell us we had been relocated elsewhere neither did they ask us to relocate. They just came with force,” Ugbosanmi said.

Abimbola Ojatunwase, another resident in the community, told FIJ that the manner in which the government announced its presence was terrifying.

She said that no one spoke in English to properly tell them that the government wanted them out of the community for any reason. Instead, she said, they came with bulldozers to demolish their houses.

“We saw area boys with axes and cutlasses and some Mopol were with them. They put fuel inside empty plastics, lit it and threw it at our houses. People had to run. When we returned, some of us couldn’t find our refrigerators and generators,” Ojatunwase told FIJ.

READ ALSO: Lagos Gov’t Demolishes Buildings in Ikorodu Without Paying Compensation

Roseline Omosheeni, an aged resident in the area, told FIJ that due to the attack on their community, their sufferings quintupled.

She said that many of them found it hard to survive before the authorities visited them. With many of their properties missing, and commercial activities put to an abrupt halt, they are barely holding up.

“Our kids cannot go to school and we still have to fend for them. When it rained two days ago, it drenched all of us. We want the government to consider us,” Omosheeni told FIJ on Thursday.

“It’s not as if we do not desire to live in homes built with bricks, but since we do not have, we are living here. If they want to evict us, they should find a new place for us.”

Ben Hundeyin, the Lagos Police spokesman, did not answer several phone calls FIJ made on Thursday.

FIJ also called the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) and the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources but both agencies’ phone lines were unreachable.