“Take it down!”

Seven weeks after about 14 buildings were demolished in Mende Villa Phase 1, Maryland, Lagos, residents are still left in limbo as to the demands of the Lagos State Ministry of Environment.

Ifeanyi, a resident of the villa, told FIJ that no one had an idea of the required boundary line of the state government for the ‘right of passage’ channel after buildings in a section of the estate were pulled down on May 4.

He added that this defeats the rush that preceded the demolition of what used to be people’s homes after Tokunbo Wahab, the Commissioner of Environment, ordered them to be taken down.

“Seven weeks after the demolition and counting, we are still vulnerable and have no idea about the boundary lines required by the state government. Several weeks later, we are still vulnerable and exposed,” said Ifeanyi.

“This makes one wonder what the rush was about. The commissioner made people move out of homes they had always known in hours just to leave us in limbo about the project.

“They couldn’t give people one week or even a week to move out of their properties; they made them leave in a hurry, but we have not heard from them since then nor understood what they want from us.

“Currently, we are exposed and paying heavily for security.”

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

On May 4, residents of Mende Villa woke up like every other resident of the state. But their lives would soon change forever.

A few weeks before May 4, the Lagos State Ministry of Environment began demolishing buildings in Kosofe Local Government Area, in line with the right-of-way framework, which ensures that water bodies and drainage channels are not obstructed and are properly catered to within the state.

Seyi, the chairman of the Mende Villa Estate, told FIJ that after they heard the news of the demolition going on around them, they became worried, as there were also rumours that their estate could be affected.

“The demolition all started like a movie. First, it was us [residents of the estate] hearing news of demolition ongoing in Mende and Arowojobe. We heard that the demolition was to clear the passageway for the canal behind our estate,” Soetan told FIJ.

“We weren’t worried because we had fulfilled all the conditions of setting up the estate, and we also have the necessary documents that permit us to have our estate in that place.

“Afterwards, the rumours became intense, and we had to seek audience with the ministry of environment at the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, to know if we had breached any of the land use laws, as there was no communication from the agency.

“When we got there, they said the commissioner was out of town, but they reviewed our documents and stated that we had nothing to fear. We returned home and were assured nothing would happen.”

Ifeanyi told FIJ that after the estate’s first visit to the ministry, the rumours intensified but they thought that if the government would demolish any buildings, they would at least mark them or notify the residents, as was the norm within the state.

“Everyone knows that before any building can be demolished within the state, the government will notify the residents. When we visited, the ministry also told us there would be no demolition in our estate, as we had our documents, and that if anything would happen, they would notify us.

“Our developer, Deacon Durojaiye, also told us we had nothing to fear as we had all the necessary state approvals. It’s important to note that most of these approvals were obtained in 2008, and no one envisaged that 16 years down the line, they would no longer be relevant and demolition would happen.”

Ifeanyi further said that prior to the demolition, there had been officials from the Lagos State Ministry of Environment coming to check the estate but they would just come and go, knowing the residents had the state government’s permission to be there.

He added that Wahab was also present in the estate to check the coordinates to ensure the developer complied with the state government’s 15-meter setback from the Odo Iya Alaro canal.

However, he said the state surveyor never got back with the report of his findings, while their own independent surveyor stated that they never breached the meters set by the government.

“Before the demolition, officials from the ministry would come and check the estate and go, but this time around, the commissioner came himself on April 26, a week before the exercise,” said Ifeanyi.

“He came with a surveyor who came to check the coordinates to be sure we complied with the 15-meter setback from the Odo Iya Alaro canal. The surveyor worked with our independent surveyor, and he told us that we were within the meters set by the state government.

“When we asked the state surveyor what the report of the findings was, he never got back to date.

“Then, to further complicate everything, the commissioner said they were looking for a 100-meter setback from the canal. This was never stated in any of the approved documents. He said the government would take 60 meters from us and 40 meters from the other side.”

Ifeanyi said they were all still in the middle of this when, on May 4, they heard bulldozers had been stationed at the sides of their fences and that the commissioner was coming into the estate.

“On the day the actual demolition happened, Wahab came here again, and we were having a conversation, but this time, we noticed something had changed. However, we couldn’t lay our fingers on it,” said Ifeanyi.

“One of the developer’s lawyers, who was also our legal representative, was engaging him, and in the course of their conversation, he presented a document that Wahab asked how he got.

“Wahab claimed it was an internal document, but the lawyer said a committee was set up to investigate an issue and the document was a report from that committee. He also told the commissioner there was nothing secret about the report because it was a government document.

“This statement got Wahab angry, and he then gestured to the men who came with him, ‘You know what? Go and take it down.'”

In an eleven-second video made available to FIJ, Wahab was seen surrounded by the residents of the estate, including Seyi Soetan, the chairman, when he ordered one Adekoya to take some measurements and then take down the buildings.

“You know what? You know what we will do? Adekoya, take the measurements and take them down,” he said before walking away.

THE COURT INJUNCTION

Dayo, one of the residents of Mende Villa, who lost his building in the demolition, told FIJ that besides the internal document triggering the commissioner’s decision, he was propelled by a court injunction obtained by Deacon Durojaiye.

He said that after it dawned on the developer that the Lagos State Government might still proceed with the demolition plans, he went to a High Court in Lagos to secure an injunction restraining the Ministry of Environment from its planned action.

He stated that on May 3, the court issued an order preventing Wahab’s ministry from carrying out the demolition and the notice was to be served on May 7.

“Somehow, the ministry got wind of the injunction from the court and the information that they would be served on Monday. To prevent this from happening, they came on a weekend and bulldozed the building,” he told FIJ.

Dayo further stated that most of the residents whose buildings were affected were only given two hours to take out their valuables. He said at the end of the day, they could only escape with few of their valuables.

“When the commissioner said, ‘take it down’, we didn’t realise how serious that was until the bulldozers started to pull down the bricks of our buildings. Those of us who were around could bring out some things, but the door frames, window frames and metals could not be moved,” he said.

“Some people were not even around; they were outside the country, and we had to call them to say the government was pulling down their homes for a reason that was not explicitly stated. You can imagine how they must have felt. These were people who had homes before leaving, but when they returned, they would have nothing to come back to.

“We were calling them via video to show them how their homes were being torn down. It was a heartbreaking moment. Someone had even just bought the property two months before the incident and was yet to move in. The property was estimated at about N100 million.

“We lost more than the buildings, which were worth millions of naira each. We lost memories and the place we had always known to be home. We lost the place that had held all our dreams, visions and goals.

“I understand that one can get money to build other homes, after all, but the memories made in that place can never return. They can’t be remade. Those treasured moments are gone and can only be remembered now.”

Dayo also stated that no notice was served on them by the Lagos State Government or the ministry.

A LONE BULLDOZER WEEKS AFTER DEMOLITION

Seven weeks after the order, what used to be the homes of Dayo and the other displaced residents lie in ruins. Broken bricks, broken plastic, tangled metal and all sorts of debris now cover the expanse of land where they made most of their memories.

Ifeanyi said a day after the demolition began, one of the tractors used on the site broke down and the ministry never returned to retrieve it.

“The ministry not returning to retrieve the broken tractor after it broke down on May 5 makes us wonder what the urgency behind the demolition was about. I understand that it takes a lot of work to fix it, but no one has been here even to check it out since it became faulty,” he said.

“Beyond our homes, the security of the estate has now been breached, and we are now vulnerable to the world.”

“We have never had this kind of view before,” Ifeanyi said, surveying the broken fences and sweeping his hand over the expanse of land.

‘WE SERVED ENOUGH NOTICE’ – WAHAB

Ever since Wahab ordered the demolition of the buildings on May 4, FIJ noted, he has moved from one media station to another, trying to justify his ministry’s action while also claiming that he had issued notice to them ahead of the demolition.

In one of such interviews with Arise TV on May 5, he stated that Tunji Bello, who was his predecessor in office, had served notice to residents of Mende and Ogudu on the right of way of drainages and this dialogue carried on for months.

“On the issue of notice, they were served enough notices. They were served in 2021, renewed again in 2023, six months ago,” Wahab said.

“In my first life, I was a lawyer. Notices are the fulcrum of any activity, and we had served those notices, I am sure of that because I had to ask for the file. I had to say to them, ‘Go back and serve again,’ last year in November, after we met again in my office and those places were marked.’

He said that the notice demanded that the residents remove the properties sitting on the right of way of Odo-Iya Alaro.

When FIJ sent an email to the Ministry of Environment on Thursday asking for a copy of the notice said to have been issued to the residents, a compensation plan for the affected residents and the report from the state government’s surveyor, the response was that our reporter should check the agency’s social media handles.

“This is to acknowledge receipt of your mail. Kindly check the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources social media handles or the Lagos State Government website to get the information. Thank you,” said the ministry.

FIJ sent a follow-up email on June 21, stating that nothing on both agencies’ websites provided answers to the queries, but nothing had been heard from the ministry as of press time.

See a live video of the demolition here and a drone shot of Mende Villa after the demolition.