Hi-Tech Construction Company, a local construction firm, has been constructing the Agric-Isawo road in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State for eight years now. However well intended, the construction has impacted home owners in the ways they least imagined.

Olanipekun Ogunsanya, 75, acquired a piece of land in Agric in 1978 and erected a building thereon a few years later. In 1987, she completed the construction. She made it a rental property for years, and she was earning some steady rents from her tenants while she remained with her husband in Agege.

After her husband died some years ago, she became a resident of Ikorodu by moving into the property, and she has been quietly living there. Now 75 with grey hair, Iya Agege, as she is fondly called, has had her building hit with two demolitions in a space of seven years.

To pave the way for the expansion of the road, the government of Akinwumi Ambode demolished some of her property in 2017. The resultant hurt and wounds from this event had yet to heal when the current government came up with a fresh plan to demolish some houses.

Without prior notice, Ogunsanya said, some earth-moving construction equipment roared into their settlement sometime in December 2023 to demolish buildings, stretching from Agric bus-stop to as far as the NNPC fuel retail station inward Isawo. Furious, residents, joined by sympathisers, resisted the operation, and the authorities then put the work on hold until after they had held a meeting with the affected property owners in Alausa, the seat of power.

After the discussion was held, the houses were demolished. Grey-haired Ogunsanya was joined by her children and grandchildren, as well as other helpers, in picking up the pieces of her demolished property on February 23.

Ogunsanya’s situation represents the story of other property owners affected by the road expansion in Agric. The story of sacrifice, discomfort and loss has been told, yet promises of compensation by the government have remained unfulfilled.

RECURRING DEMOLITION

In 2017, 85-year-old Alhaja Otukoya Mujidat lost part of her building when the Ambode administration expanded and reconstructed the road. She had relocated to Ibadan and only got information from her daughters-in-law left in the house.

“This is the second time the government has destroyed our building. They demolished two shops and a section of our building in 2017,” Bola Otukoya, Mujidat’s daughter-in-law, told FIJ. “Mama is now in Ibadan. She is too old to do anything again, and she relies on the rents we collect and send to her for her upkeep.”

Otukoya, who lives in the elderly woman’s house at 48 Igbo Olomu Junction, further said that the house was almost burned down the day government representatives brought their caterpillars to cut down the building the second time.

Road construction and expansion occur in Lagos State regularly, and they usually affect residents’ properties. This situation has constantly put property owners in fear of uncertainty. While the government sometimes compensates people, many victims are not fortunate to get compensation.

Unlike Ogunsanya, Otukoya stated that they were pre-informed. However, no specific date was given, and many of them were caught unaware when a caterpillar was driven to their house early in January.

“Some people came here last year and told us they wanted to erect a pedestrian bridge in front of our house because of schoolchildren’s crossings,” said Otukoya, pointing to a public school some metres from the house. “For that, they would demolish a part of the building. We did not know the exact date.”

“The day they eventually showed up, we were running helter skelter, struggling to move out our personal effects. In the process, an electrical spark happened and burned a couch in the room before we quickly contained it. We could not take out some items because of their impatience. Now, we are even hearing that this is not the right spot to locate the bridge, and they have already demolished buildings.”

COMPENSATION: YES FOR SOME, NO FOR OTHERS

Many people will rather let go after their house has been demolished than race after a compensation to which access criteria are usually watertight or difficult to access. Sometimes, there are legal criteria that house owners have to fulfil before claiming compensation. Inability to meet that might cut a homeowner off the table.

In the case of Otunba Bolarinwa, his father’s one-story shopping complex was partly demolished at the Asolo bus stop this year. He stated that nothing had been said about compensation. He went on to confirm that his father was only paid compensation for the 2017 demolition.

“It was almost impossible for us to get the last compensation. My father, the owner of this shopping complex, received the money in 2023 – that was five years after the act,” Bolarinwa told FIJ in front of the partly demolished structure. “At some point, he almost gave up. I do not think it was everyone that got the money because the process wasn’t easy.”

One of those that did not get a dime was Mujidat, according to her daughter-in-law. “We have been the ones living in this house since Mama relocated to Ibadan. Mama did not receive anything beyond the promises the government made.”

Otukoya stated that two shops and part of the building were brought down in 2017. Part of the same house was demolished again to create space for a pedestrian bridge. She said that the government had not even mentioned any compensation to them.

In her own case, too, Ogunsanya’s six rooms and four shops were demolished by the Ambode government, and no compensation was paid to her. For the second time, she is a victim of bulldozing. Her once seemingly big house has now been cut down in size. Given the fact that she wasn’t paid any amount the last time, she was not confident that the government would live up to its latest monetary promise.

“They did not pay me at all during the Ambode government. It was a mere promise,” Ogunsanya said. “Now that they have demolished my house again, I don’t even have any hope of getting anything from them. We are now rebuilding the part affected, as you can see.”

While they admitted that the road construction was for the public good and they were happy with it, the affected property owners felt it was unfair that their buildings would be demolished without compensation. More so, the road construction was an expansion of the existing one.

FIJ could not get across to Adekunle Olayinka, the special adviser to Sanwo-Olu on works and infrastructure, for his comment on this story. Phone calls put through to Gbenga Omotosho, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, on Tuesday to get Olayinka’s phone number or email address were unanswered. He had also not responded to our reporter’s text message as of press time.