Compensate, Relocate Victims Of Your Demolition Exercise In Oworonshoki, TIB Tells Lagos Gov., Sanwo-Olu

Human rights and pro-democracy group, Take-It-Back Movement (TIB) on Friday asked the Lagos State government to take responsibility for the demolition of homes and displacement of poor families in the Oworonshoki area of the state.

Hundreds of residents of Oworonshoki and Idi Araba communities in the Kosofe and Mushin local government areas of Lagos State have protested against the demolition of their houses by the government.

The protesting residents, including the aged, pregnant women, and nursing mothers whose only homes have been demolished demanded that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu should provide them with new houses and compensate them for destroying their properties.

SaharaReporters had reported that the state government through the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources issued the affected residents only one week’s notice to vacate their premises, which elapsed, on July 27, 2023.

The Federation of Informal Workers Organization (FIWON) and Take It Back (TIB) Movement on Wednesday condemned the demolition.

The organisations lamented that no fewer than 10,000 people, including women and children, had been made homeless as a result of the demolitions and burning of people’s homes which started on July 24, 2023.

However, TIB in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter on Friday, said the government must take responsibility for the demolition exercise, compensate the victims for their irreparable losses, and relocate them to decent accommodation.

The statement reads in part, “As part of our outlined campaign programs to ensure that @followlasg stops the ongoing demolitions, and forced evictions in Oworonshoki, our counsel, and leading human rights lawyer @TopeTemokun has been adequately briefed.

“We will be insisting that the state government takes responsibility for this unfortunate tragedy, compensates the victims for their irreparable losses, and relocate them to a decent accommodation.”

“Government at all levels must be mandated to perform its constitutional duties, guarantee citizen’s right to welfare, security, and shelter in line with the fundamental aims and objectives of the government. #WeCantContinueLikeThis,” the statement added.