Upon THISDAY’s visit to the area after the demolition, it was observed that the notices on many of the demolished buildings indicated that pro-notices were given long before the caterpillars were brought in to pull the structures down.
On November 26, 2023, residents living in the Festac area of Lagos State, were woken up from their deep sleep at dawn by the noises of caterpillars bringing down multimillion naira houses, and wailings from their stranded and now homeless occupants.
The buildings numbering over 600 had earlier been marked for demolition by the FHA for several building contraventions, such as false or incomplete documentation, or inappropriate location of the building.
A week earlier, precisely on November 17, the FHA had released a statement on plans to demolish 677 houses, while 744 others were marked to be partially demolished over infringement by a developer in Phase 2, Festac Town, Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos State.
According to FHA’s South-West Zonal Manager, Mr Akintola Olagbemiro, during an assessment visit to the affected area, he said that despite letters and stakeholders’ meetings, the developers have continued to build on the swampy land without meeting the requirements.
He said: “After so many years of trying to get into the property belonging to FHA, which we labelled as Festac Phase 2. There has been encroachment and illegal development and it’s turning the place into a slum.
“We are trying to see how best we can resolve it and make people live in a more serene environment. Unfortunately, there have been cases of illegal developers and land grabbers.”
Similarly, the Deputy General Manager, FHA, Urban and Regional Planning, Southwest, Francisca Michael-James, said, “We have given the residents several notices but to our surprise, works are still going on, without regard to the law.
“Now we have the permission of our management and we will ask for security backup and start enforcement. We will start removing structures from the roads and those on pipelines set back.
“We will also remove the buildings constructed after the stakeholders’ meetings where we agreed that everyone should wait until we are done with our assessment but some of them continued to build and concluded that we will regularise, but regularisation is not automatic. Now, the ones that did not meet regularisation will have to go.”
THISDAY Findings
Some of the notices date back to November 2022 (FHA/AR/34 23.11.2022), while some of the most recent notices date back to 25 August and 22 September 2023 respectively.
Some were only asked to ‘Remove upper floor’ which somehow correlated with the FHA’s claim of wanting to reclaim some of the properties and restore order to the estate.
The demolition of houses in the area eventually commences exactly at the expiration of the 7-day ultimatum issued to the affected residents by the FHA. Following the demolition exercise, a visit by THISDAY to the demolition site typically captures the axiom, ‘The rich also cry’.
It was a sad day for landlords seeing their multimillion naira investments levelled down. A sad day for occupants, whose rents aren’t due, just moved into the building or not even in town between the period of the notice and actual demolition days.
The calculator probably got stuck while counting the losses as they were too enormous and depressing to count. High-rise buildings, duplexes, mansions, mini-estates, units of flats, etc. all levelled to the ground in one day.
All the pleas, tears, wailings, and bribe attempts running into several millions, pleading to be given at least an extra 24 hours to salvage their properties inside the buildings, all fell on deaf ears.
The popular ‘Fela Anikulapo’ evergreen song titled, ‘Zombie’, resonated better with the way the FHA demolition team went about their duties on that day, as they only cared about the instructions (order) they were given by their boss, and listened not to any other voice of lamentation nor reasoning from the residents.
The pride, joy, and sense of security that comes with owning a home in Festac Phase 2, immediately erode into dejection, regrets and despair, and surprisingly for the first time in a long while, their money couldn’t save them from the horror of watching their labour go down the drain in one day.
It was gathered that many of the affected residents have sought shelter with their relatives and kept their property with trusted friends and neighbours, where they are protected from the elements and the roving eyes of marauders.
The area now presently echoes fear, apprehension, misery and wasted billions of naira saved over the years through hard work
While several structures, mainly duplexes, were already demolished, there were houses around them that were left intact.
In some of these houses, only the fences and security buildings were brought down, leaving behind an unsightly scene. In most of the demolished structures, manual labourers could be seen still working tirelessly as they further broke down the remaining pillars and hard concrete into pieces.
Cart and wheelbarrow pushers could also be seen converging at demolition sites, scavenging roofing sheets, bent iron, metal scraps, and other metal items that could be sold or recycled to unknown destinations.
THISDAY also observed that eviction and demolition notices by FHA were sprayed in red ink on many buildings in the area. Most of the houses, it was observed, still had people living in them. Many of the markings, dating back to August and September, indicated that these buildings had been marked for demolition and may soon be brought down.
Not all the marked buildings, however, were residential homes as some were pharmaceutical stores and hotels. On inquiry, their owners shied away from speaking with the press.