‘My property is worth over N200m’ — Lagos residents lament FHA demolitions

Some residents of Soba, in Abule Ado, Festac, Lagos state, have lamented the demolition of their houses, saying the exercise was carried out “without notice”.

The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) carried out the demolition between November 17 and November 20.

The FHA had set out to demolish houses over illegal development, marking 677 homes for complete demolition and 744 for partial demolition.

Although a good number of the buildings were residential, shops and commercial buildings were also affected.

Some of the most affected areas in Sabo include Stone Water estate, Ezi Gold estate, King’s Royal estate, among others.

Samuel Okorocha, a middle-aged house owner, who was affected by the demolition, said his building was not duly notified of the demolition.

“The FHA officials came around in 2021 and told us that where our structure was erected was illegal. Since then, we have been going back and forth as we rightfully bought the land. But FHA said it was not legal,” Okorocha said.

“When they started demolishing houses on Friday, we thought it was like other times when they came to mark buildings in the past.

“But it is unfair that they could not come back in few days to demolish the houses so we can look for other alternatives.

“My property is worth millions of naira, and bringing it down is very painful.

“To be sincere, I spent over N200 million on the house and that’s just the cost I can think of now. I am very disappointed and I have been suicidal too.”

Okorocha, who has three tenants, said his house was demolished on Monday, November 20.

“I just collected the rent of one of my tenants and this is happening now,” he said.

Another resident of the area, Obianuju Peters, said she had to leave the hospital when she heard that houses on her street were being pulled down. 

Peters said demolition of the house would have worsened her health as her husband and children were not at home during the exercise.

She said FHA came without notification, the same way the authority did two years ago.

“In 2021, when they (FHA officials) came, they demolished few houses. They were claiming the buildings were on the road,” Peters said.

“After that time, most landlords went to their office to rectify things with them. So we thought that they’ve settled everything.

“In May 2023, they came to issue numbers to so many buildings here. So that I wasn’t around them.”

She said some buildings were demolished in May when she got back from travel.

“I saw that my building was marked to be demolished in 7 days. So I tried to find out from other landlords. They said we should go to their office and take our landed documents to the office. So many of us have gone there, they asked us to wait,” Peters said.

“So, we were surprised last week Friday. I was not even feeling fine. I was in the hospital. One of my friends called me and asked if I was at home, saying she saw some bulldozers. So, I ran out of the hospital.”

However, Peters said her building was numbered, and she discovered that the numbering meant that her house was safe.

On his part, Chibueze Nwabuzor, another affected resident, said he had been notified of the demolition in the past, but they had been an understanding with the FHA zonal office in Festac. 

“But suddenly, they came on Friday with security operatives, saying that they had received a directive from Abuja to demolish our buildings,” he said. 

“They also said the land was originally supposed to be unoccupied. But how come they did not protect the land before we bought it? Something is fishy.”

For Hosannah Edet, a hairstylist in the Abule Ado Soba axis, she witnessed the demolition of the houses, which were just a stone’s throw away from her store.

“The people who came to demolish the houses were said to have come from Abuja. They went straight to business and didn’t listen to the pleading of the house owners. Some of them had to park some stuff out of their houses hurriedly,” she said.

FHA: LAND OWNERS CONTRAVENED REGULATIONS

Speaking to TheCable, a source, who preferred anonymity, due to official directive, said the occupants had been notified several times of the development.

“The landowners were adequately notified. The last notice was sent in October. There has been a lot of misinformation on the issue,” the source said.

Speaking on the demolition exercise on November 17, 2023, Akintola Olagbemiro, zonal managing director of FHA, south-west zone, told journalists residents of houses marked for demolition at the Festac Phase 2 area had contravened regulations of the FHA. 

Olagbemiro said the property, labelled as Festac phase 2, belongs to FHA and the authority has been making attempts for many years to get into the properties.

“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,” he said.

He added that there’s been a series of issues of illegal estate developers and people selling lands, “who claimed they owned the place and we have litigation from many angles”.

Also speaking at the event, Francisca Michael-James, FHA’s deputy general manager, urban and regional planning, south-west, said the authority has 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,” she said.

Michael-James said that following stakeholder meetings, buildings constructed after the agreed-upon waiting period will be removed.

“Some continued construction, but regularisation is not automatic, and those not met will be removed,” Michael-James said.

She said the authority will also remove buildings constructed after stakeholders’ meetings where residents and the authority agreed to wait until an assessment was carried out.

According to her, some of the landowners continued to build and concluded that “we will regularise”.

“Now, the ones that did not meet regularisation will have to go,” she said.

“In the law, if we demolish, we are supposed to penalise the owner of the building and charge for the fees for the cost of carrying out the operation,” she said.

“Assuming any of the buildings collapsed, the landlord will be charged for manslaughter but the first point of call will be pointing accusing fingers at the agency so, as to avoid that, that’s why we want to carry out the enforcement. The enforcement will be done soon.

“The first thing we are doing is to clear the road; some of the buildings will be partially demolished for right of way. 677 houses will be demolished and 744 will be demolished partially.”

In May 2022, the FHA raised an alarm over the activities of fraudsters illegally advertising land in Festac town for sale.

On Wednesday, the Lagos government had debunked allegations that the demolition exercise in the state was targeted at a particular ethnic group.

Speaking on Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily, Oluyinka Olumide, the Lagos commissioner for physical planning and urban development, told owners of the affected structures in the Ikota, Lekki, Alaba, Ajao Estate, Abule Ado, Ladipo Market and other areas of the state to provide their building approvals.