By Debo Oladimeji
THE Lagos State Government has directed the developer to stop further demolition of Ikota Low -Cost Housing Estate. The directive by the Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, was sequel to a discussion between leaders of the residents’ association and member representating Eti-Osa State Constituency in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Noheem Adams.
Speaking on the development, President of Ikota Low-Cost Housing Estate Landlords Association, Mr. Titus Ewarawon, disclosed that they were called to a meeting by the commissioner concerning the demolition of government flats (otherwise known as HFP buildings), which had affected many Maroko evictees resident in the estate.
“We were called to the Lagos State House of Assembly at Ikeja to discuss. When we got there, they told the land-grabbers to stop. They said it was the Ministry of Land that gave them the contract, but they did not tell them to demolish government buildings, but only to remove emergency structures. So, they asked them to go and stop the demolition henceforth.
The commissioner said he was going to send his own people to go and confirm that demolition has stopped.”
“We told them that they should build Ikota for Ikota and they say they had heard. The last meeting we had with them, we discussed about the way forward. They say if they should build houses for us, it may not be ready in the next five years.
“They asked the man who wrote the petition to the Lagos State House of Assembly, one Razaki, his own solution and he said they should build Ikota for Ikota people. They promised to give us N1.5million before, which we rejected. They now increased it to N5million. We said if they can pay us N15 million. They said that we should bring it down. We said that it ought to be N22 million if we were to go by the value of the land. They also said there is a place in Sangotedo that we should go and look at the place. The people who are familiar with that place said that the place cannot contain us.”
He recalled that the conclusion was that they would discuss the matter in the house and get back to the association, noting: “Before we went for the last meeting, they were using sledge hammers to demolish houses. They don’t use caterpillar again. I went there to stop them. The engineer said that he did not know that they had said they should stop demolition, but I told him that the government had said that they should stop demolition. Unfortunately, they have destroyed the house.”
Ewarawon stated that the developers are calling the place a slum, insisting that one can build a slum and turn it to a nice place with sand-filling.
“Those people that they have demolished their HFP houses (government flats), they want the developers to rebuild their houses for them. The house of the person that wrote the petition was destroyed,” he said.
