Amnesty International denounces forced evictions in Lagos State

Authorities in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos are continuing to forcibly evict people from their homes, with more than one million people driven out in the last five years, and hundreds now left homeless, Amnesty International said in a report released Tuesday. In the latest instance cited in the report, more than 3,000 residents of a destitute area of Lagos were left homeless without warning less than a year ago, in April 2005, when bulldozers and armed police suddenly moved in to demolish their homes. "On the day the bulldozers came, I went to the market in the morning and before I came back with my sister there was fire everywhere,” 17-year old Favour Simon was quoted as saying in the report. “There was nothing left of my house. I was only carrying the clothes that I was wearing. I have nothing else left," the evictee said in the report entitled “Making the destitute homeless - forced evictions in Makoko, Lagos State.” Between 27 and 29 April 2005, according to the report, bulldozers and armed police moved unannounced into the Makoko slums, razing and burning down houses, two churches, a mosque and a medical clinic. Some 3,000 people were left out in the street. The evictions were carried out to execute a 2000 court judgment granting ownership of the area to a private owner, but were conducted in a manner violating international human rights legislation, Amnesty said. "The events in Makoko amount to forced evictions and as such are a grave violation of the human rights of the residents of the community," Kolawole Olaniyan, director of the group’s Africa Programme, said in a statement. "Forced evictions, carried out without consultation, adequate notice, due process, legal protection, redress and appropriate relocation measures, are a grave violation of human rights." The rights group also said the evictions were conducted with an excessive use of force. Witnesses said police and people in civilian clothes sprayed teargas to keep residents out of the way of the demolition squads, and beat up anyone who protested or tried to get in the way. Victims of the eviction told Amnesty that at least seven people, including five children aged under 10 who were in a Koranic school, were injured by bulldozers in the process. The 21-page report also said the Nigerian authorities had made no effort to relocate the evictees or compensate them, and that nine months after their homes were razed, hundreds of Nigerians were still sleeping out. The evictions "fit into a pattern of forced evictions in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria,” Amnesty International charged. Nigerian officials declined comment on the report. A senior official in the Ministry of Housing and Environment, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government was not aware of the report and could not comment on its contents. According to the Geneva-based international NGO, Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), over 1,200,000 people, 23,300 households and 30 squatter settlements have been forcibly evicted in different parts of the country since the turn of the century. The evictions were often linked to an increase in real estate value and often targeted people living on the margins of society with no access to amenities such as clean water, sanitation, health services or education, the organization reported. Roseline Igbe, a 48-year-old widow and mother of four, who was previously evicted from the government-owned Eric Moore Towers, told IRIN her family had been deeply traumatized by the government action. "We remain homeless, our belongings have been distributed among relatives and our lives are unsettled as we move from one temporary shelter to another," she said. The rights group recommended the government stop evictions and place a moratorium on the practice until a comprehensive housing police based on human rights is put in place. "Amnesty International urges the Nigerian Government to immediately stop all forced evictions." It further called on the Government of Nigeria "to ensure that all those who have been subject to forced evictions have adequate alternative accommodation and the right to an effective remedy, including access to justice, which may include restitution, compensation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition".