From Oworonshoki to Ikota, Trade Fair Complex to Oral Extension Estate, GBENGA OLONINIRAN assesses the human costs of Lagos State’s urban expansion drive

Homeless and helpless, families wandered around the Oworonshoki area of Lagos, where the rubble of bricks tells the story of relentless demolition exercises that have hit homes.

Stranded residents were visibly angry. Every stranger seemed like a threat as movements were closely monitored in the now-quiet community that echoes the loud anguish of displacement.

Those who still had roofs over their heads quickly peeped from their windows, while others rushed to their entrances as they kept close watch on our correspondent, who arrived in the area on a sunny Tuesday afternoon in November.

The sound of any vehicle—however faint—rang in the ears of the dwellers as if another caterpillar had arrived to pull down more houses in the community, located in the Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos.

The hostility could not only be sensed; it could be felt. The sight of a camera was the last thing families—who ate outside under the sun and slept in the cold at night—wanted to see.

Not only had homes been pulled down, schools and churches were also levelled; and interviewing the victims of the demolition in the Ojileru and Coker areas of the community was not a walk in the park for our correspondent.

“Who are you?!” was the first question by a woman sitting on some household furniture barely balanced among the rubble of bricks on Toluwalase Street.

She was later identified as Kafayat Omoboriowo.

“If you were here on Monday, you would know that there is a problem,” she said in Yoruba, after being persuaded by locals familiar with the community who led our correspondent around.

With all her belongings scattered outside, she could not hide her emotions. “We are angry. Those who brought cameras were sent away from here! What do we want to hear? They have pushed us outside. This is where we sleep—see our clothes out there!” Omoboriowo said at the top of her voice.

At night, the displaced residents lay clothes and mats on the ground. Others made nets where mothers and children sleep to prevent mosquito bites, but they could not be spared from the biting cold and rain that may fall at night, after surviving the scorching sun in the afternoon.

A woman, who gave her name as Iya Ibeji for fear of victimisation, lamented the brute force applied by government agents who carried out the demolition.

“My daughter was affected by the teargas during the demolition. She was coughing and gasping for breath. I have been treating her for the past three days, and she can’t even see clearly now,” she lamented.

With community schools demolished, many children, between the ages of four and 12, were seen running around and playing in the midst of the rubble of bricks and iron rods.

“Enina School was demolished; Winning Life School was also demolished. They pulled down many schools; they didn’t spare any,” said Fatai Ganiyu, Youth Chairman of Toluwalase Street.

“About five nursery and primary schools were demolished, and a secondary school too. There is only one public school in Oworonshoki, and it is very far,” said Iya Ibeji.

Over 100 houses had been pulled down in the community by the Lagos State Building Control Agency in October as part of a series of operations that began in the area in September 2025, described by the state government as an urban regeneration drive.

The exercise was not limited to Oworonshoki. Homeowners in highbrow Ikota Villa Estate and Oral Extension, both in the Eti-Osa Local Government Area, have similar tales of woe to tell.

Around Delight Court and Signature Estate inside Ikota Villa Estate, residents said about eight buildings were demolished to expand a canal.

“Eight houses were broken to pave the way for the canal,” said Afeez Saliu, a worker at the site.

Some of the houses had their sitting rooms almost exposed after a significant part of their buildings was chopped off.

In Oral Extension Estate, about 200 metres from Ikota Villa Estate, up to 17 houses were demolished in October in an operation carried out by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources.

The buildings shared boundaries with the Ikota River, a major trigger for the government’s action.

Upon entering the estate, it was observed that dozens of buildings were also marked for contravention.

“I don’t know when they are coming to demolish this one,” said Banji Coker, the son of a landlord. “My dad and everyone are worried,” he told our correspondent.

At the International Trade Fair Complex in Ojo, the government also levelled buildings, mostly new structures, ranging from warehouses to shopping complexes.

The chairman of Trade Fair City Park, Pascal Okechukwu, lamented losing his warehouse to the demolition, worrying that “It will cost us about N30m to get this place back to how it used to be.”

Okechukwu said he had been at the complex since 1992, at a time he said “there was no development.”

“They even begged us to come here. We put our investments here only to be met with what Lagos State called physical planning or no physical planning. It was the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing that gave us approval. Whatever they want us to do, let them come out firmly so we can do that rather than spoiling one’s investments after building.”

Lagos demolition wave

Founded in 1967, Lagos State, with a land mass of 2,798 Sq. Km and a population of over 20 million, sets its gaze on becoming a smart megacity.

But in the way of that dream stand irregular structures and slums, which the government, in the last few years, has intensified efforts at pulling down.

The massive demolitions in Oworonshoki were on the back of this smart city dream. Many of the houses levelled had existed for several decades.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Lagos State, Gbolahan Oki, said the demolished buildings were illegal as they had no government approval.

According to him, the government gave the homeowners an amnesty period to obtain building permits but many failed to seize the opportunity.

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“Only two or three persons in that community took advantage of the amnesty; others ignored all warnings,” Oki said.

A coastal city, Lagos often grapples with flooding during the rainy seasons. The Commissioner for Environment, Tokunbo Wahab, who has led several drainage cleanups in the past to prevent flooding, cited drainage obstruction for the demolition in Eti-Osa.

“We stopped them then, but we were alerted again recently that the encroachment had resumed aggressively, with attempts to sell land to unsuspecting buyers,” Wahab said.

The government’s efforts to prevent flooding have seen it demolishing buildings in different parts of the city. Part of this was the demolition of several duplexes and other buildings along the Ikota River in September this year. The action was carried out by the Drainage Enforcement and Compliance Department of the Ministry of the Environment.

Media reports show that demolitions have also been carried out in areas such as Ogudu, Mende, Maryland, Yaba and several others in 2024 and since January 2025, with the latest happening at Mile 12 in December.

Demolitions widen city’s housing deficit

While Lagos aims to build an organised city, the relentless yearly demolitions continue to widen the state’s housing deficit figures.

Though there are no formal statistics on the number of demolished buildings, media reports show that the government has demolished well over 200 houses in the last two years, owing to the lack of government approval.

It is a paradox for a city where over 90 per cent of residents are tenants and house rents keep skyrocketing, forcing some to seek refuge under bridges.

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said his government had delivered over 10,000 homes since his administration began in 2019. However, a report by The State of Lagos Housing Market, Volume 3, stated that as of 2025, Lagos faces a housing deficit of 3.396 million units. This includes 618,356 inadequate homes that are either structurally unsafe, severely overcrowded, or lacking essential services such as clean water, proper sanitation, and electricity.

The report noted that although housing supply improved significantly from 1.4 million units in 2016 to over 2.57 million units in 2025, it has not kept pace with demand.

It stated, “The housing deficit has thus grown from approximately 2.95 million units in 2016 to 3.4 million in 2025, a 15 per cent increase.”

The Executive Secretary of the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria, Toye Eniola, said it was likely that each of the houses demolished accommodated no fewer than a family of five.

He said, “When you look at the statistics of the families affected, it means they have been rendered homeless, adding to the high number of those already struggling to live.

“So, it is going to compound housing problems in Lagos State. A man who does not have a roof over his head can hardly concentrate on any job he is doing, and that will also affect productivity.

“Some of them will end up staying under bridges, and for the megacity you’re thinking of having, the government will have to spend more money to fight crime and remove people from under bridges.”

Why unapproved buildings fester

The Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority and its sister agency, Lagos State Building Control Agency, regulate the state’s built sector. While LASPPPA issues building permits, LASBCA issues authorisation to commence construction and ensures compliance.

According to Lagos law, anyone intending to build in Lagos must first obtain a Building Permit and the Authorisation to Commence Construction Letter. Obtaining these approvals requires several steps. Until 2025, when the government officially launched the Electronic Physical Planning Process System, the process was manual, cumbersome and time-consuming. Users also complained of corruption in the system, where state officials may not do their job, except offered a bribe.

The state government said the Electronic Physical Planning Process System was unveiled to facilitate building permit approvals in as little as 10 minutes for minor applications and within a few working days after the initial screening process for others.

According to the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority, Olumide Sotire, “more than 50 per cent of houses in Lagos do not have approvals,” signifying that several buildings actually lack approvals.

For the Executive Secretary of the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria, Eniola, a situation where state regulatory agencies appear to focus more on “punishment”, in terms of demolition, than encouraging compliance, is worrisome.

“The question we should ask ourselves is what the government was doing when those people were building the houses. Why are we spending taxpayers’ money on people who fail to carry out their responsibilities? Some people have failed to check all these illegalities; they are not doing their work, and now they are waiting to demolish. So the government bears a lot of fault because it means it is not living up to its responsibilities,” Eniola said.

The PUNCH investigations show that LASPPPA has district offices around the city to be able to see and stop illegal structures. For instance, there is a LASPPPA’s district office beside Oral Extension estate where the government recently carried out demolitions.

When asked if relevant officials from the ministry did not observe when developers were building in the area, the Permanent Secretary, LASPPPA, Sotire, responded in a parable. “That the owner of a house does not catch a thief until the thief enters the house does not make the entry of the thief legitimate,” he said. According to him, in many cases, “the buildings were there before LASPPPA got there.”

Sotire said many people are also uninformed and act out of ignorance. “I have seen many people, even family members, saying they have approvals, and when you ask for the approvals, some of them bring a survey document. Is that an approval? So let them bring out their approvals, and if need be, they go to court for compensation,” he said.

Answering questions on the Trade Fair demolition, Sotire said the buildings did not comply with regulations.

“The warehouses, for instance, do they have a park for trailers? The trailers should be able to go there and park conveniently. The road must be free. You don’t just park in the middle of the street. To make matters worse, they also started building a residential estate inside the Trade Fair Complex. So we broke some walls just to show our presence and give some warnings,” he said.

Big demolitions, paltry compensations

The demolition in Oworonshoki triggered a massive protest in September, with angry residents blocking the Third Mainland Bridge.

While the state government said it had already carried out two rounds of compensation for over 100 property owners with valid documents in Oworonshoki, some building owners said the money being given—ranging from N300,000 to N3m or more in some cases—could not cater for their losses. Others claimed they did not get any compensation at all.

The youth leader in one of the Oworonshoki communities, Ganiyu, said his family received nothing.

“We were not given any money. The people given money were arranged, and their videos were circulated to justify more demolitions.

“Will N300,000 rebuild a house? It doesn’t even buy land. It cannot even rent a decent apartment in Lagos. A three-storey building was among those demolished—will N300,000 rebuild that?” Ganiyu queried. “If the government were sincere, they would have met with us and signed a Memorandum of Understanding.” (PUNCH)

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