Amnesty International has asked the Nigerian police to immediately release 158 residents of Otodo-Gbame and other informal settlements across Lagos who have been in detention since being arrested and beaten up by the police at around midnight on the 15th November as they peacefully protested outside the Lagos Governor’s office.
“We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all arrested protestors and for an independent and impartial investigation into allegations of excessive use of force” said Osai Ojigho of Amnesty International.
Several of the protestors told Amnesty International that many of them were asleep when just after midnight, the police arrived at the protest site and began arresting and beating them. The 158 arrested men and women are being held in Panti police station.
The residents were demanding that the Governor speaks with them about a series of forced evictions that have made more than 30,000 people homeless, as documented in Amnesty International’s report ‘The Human Cost of a Mega City: Forced Evictions of the Urban Poor in Lagos, Nigeria’, and the threat to forcibly evict more of them.
Amnesty International’s report details repeated forced evictions of the Otodo-Gbame and Ilubirin communities carried out since March 2016 without any consultation, adequate notice, compensation or alternative housing being offered to those affected. The report further documents how the police, military, Lagos State Task Force officers and unidentified armed men, set fire to homes and shot live ammunition and tear gas at residents of Ilubirin and Otodo-Gbame waterfront communities. Eleven people were killed and 17 have gone missing.
The Lagos government in a response released on 14 November whilst denying responsibility for the forced evictions, has chosen to remain silent on the 11 unlawful killings, 17 missing people, as well as the fact that those forcibly evicted by its agents, in violation of court orders, remain homeless till today.
“Its statement, while focussing on land ownership in these waterfront communities is full of errors and omissions. For example, contrary to the Lagos government’s assertion that the question of ownership of the Otodo-Gbame land has been settled by the courts, the case Humpe Dansu & Ors v. Oba Saheed Elegushi & Ors, initiated by the Otodo Gbame community in November 2015, is still pending before the Lagos State High Court. The statement also wrongly alleges that the destruction of the community was the result of an “unfortunate fire incidence” in November 2016, while ignoring the roles played by state authorities in November 2016, March and April 2017 to forcibly evict residents and demolish the entire community with fires and bulldozers”
“Lagos government’s statement is both inaccurate and unhelpful” said Osai Ojigho of Amnesty International. “It is disappointing that instead of constructively engaging with the thousands of people who were brutally and forcibly evicted and taking steps to remedy the human rights violations, the Lagos government has chosen to confuse facts and shirk responsibility”.
Amnesty international added that the Lagos government’s explanations for these forced evictions have been repeatedly inconsistent. In November 2016, it denied any responsibility for the forced evictions and blamed them on a communal clash that resulted in fires which razed down the community. In March 2017, the government said its actions that month were taken to protect environmental health. In April 2017, the State Ministry of Justice said the government forcibly evicted thousands of Otodo-Gbame residents because it had reason to believe that militants were using Otodo-Gbame as a base.
“Moreover, regardless of these various reasons offered, none of them justify the mass forced evictions and other human rights violations that have occurred. Forced evictions are prohibited under international law binding on Nigeria and can never be justified,” it noted.
