Gbenro Akerele, chairperson of the Ifesowapo Abule-Egba Community Development Association, has called on Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Lagos State Governor, to compensate landlords whose houses were demolished in the area.

In a Facebook post, Akerele said non-compensation of landlords by the state government has not only rendered many homeless but also led to the death of many landlords.

He said the government told the community in a meeting in December 2019 that it would site a new state government project in the area within one and a half years.

The government demolished many houses in the community after a seven-day notice on January 28, 2019, without compensating those affected.

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“Because of this development, no less than 15 landlords and business owners have lost their lives, while those who are not dead are now tenants,” he said.

“We fear that this is how the Magodo Landlords issue began, with state government officials taking over people’s lands and the case lasting 37 years.”

He said it had been two years since the government demolished the houses, but the project is yet to be executed, and no one has been compensated.

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Akerele said the demolition was done because the government planned to relocate Computer Village from Ikeja to Abule-Egba.

In 2011, he said, Babatunde Fashola, the then governor of Lagos State, visited the area to find out the possibility of siting the project and moving the existing Katankowa clothes and spare parts market to Amikanle, but found out it was impossible.

He said when Akinwunmi Ambode became the state governor in 2015, he drafted a new plan to accommodate the Katangowa clothes market alongside an ICT park. But because he was not re-elected, the project was abandoned.

Akerele said Sanwo-Olu reached out to the community in 2019, but since then, nothing has been done.

When FIJ contacted the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, their line was switched off. At press time, they had not responded to a text message sent to them.