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General News of Monday, 3 February 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Tarkwa Bay: Displaced dwellers battle homelessness after bulldozers’ rage

Displaced residents play videoDisplaced residents

It’s barely four months that Senna Mani moved into a rented apartment in the Tarkwa Bay area of Lagos State with his wife and sick daughter before he became homeless.

Being an emerging interior decorator, leaving his father’s house in the waterfront neighbourhood for a modest apartment of N60,000 for two years within the community was no mean feat. But his joy was short-lived when his young daughter took ill. Unable to meet her medical needs, she became really sick after bouts of typhoid and malaria.

Mani mulled over his plight after taking his daughter along with his wife to a neighbouring community for medical help. But as he returned home, he was greeted by chaos and cries. Confusion engulfed the community as gunshots rent the air.

Residents ran in different directions to nowhere in particular as men of the Nigerian Navy forced them off the Island around 9 pm on January 21. Mani claimed he fled for safety after watching bulldozers demolish structures including his father’s house.

Mani said, “Many wailed as they helplessly watched the demolition and when the dust settled, they laid their mattresses in the open to sleep.’’

Tarkwa Bay is a waterfront community, lacking basic amenities in healthcare and electricity. Despite being a waterfront community of 600 metres from oil pipelines supplying Lagos State, the community has 10,000 inhabitants and grossly underdeveloped.

The navy earlier carried out a similar exercise at Okun Glass village, Ilaase, in the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, claiming to be acting on the strength of the Federal Government that vandalism of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation pipelines thrived in the area. Same explanation was offered for the Tarkwa Bay exercise but the locals insisted on their innocence.

Mani stated, “My daughter is sick. My wife and sick daughter are by the riverside in a nearby riverine community called Agala. I just returned to the community when I heard gunshots. I heard the naval officers shout, ‘park and go, park and go.’ They chased people away with guns. Tarkwa Bay is far away from the pipeline. I was born and brought up in Tarkwa Bay since 1990.”

Tears as bulldozers rumble

He recalled that many houses were demolished without notice, adding that residents were not allowed to pack their belongings.


Stranded residents

Mani stated, “They demolished my father’s house too. I lived with my father but when I had a kid and wife, I decided to take them away from my family home. I rented an apartment for two years but barely spent four months before it was pulled down by bulldozers. I paid N60, 000 for two years. My mother is down with waist pain.’’

Another resident, Emmanuel Dickson, told MyNigeria.com that the eviction was without any prior notice.

Dickson said, “They started to destroy houses in the area around 9:30 pm. Immediately they entered, they began to shoot. Many ran to pick their children. My children were in school that day so I went for them first. I tried to save and defend my children. They gave us 30 minutes to pack out of the Island.

“It was while trying to do that, that I got whipped. I am from Rivers State, Port Harcourt. I began as a tenant in this place and now I am a landlord.”

Also speaking, a resident identified only Austine said he, like many others in the neighbourhood, cannot engage in vandalism for they had jobs. He added, “We don’t engage in vandalism. We have jobs that we do. Since the eviction, I don’t have anywhere to sleep except my parents’ house in Ikeja where I now squat. It’s a single room.’’

A global human rights group, Amnesty International, in a 2017 report titled, “The human cost of a megacity forced evictions of the urban poor in Lagos’, stated that ‘between 2000 and 2009, authorities across Nigeria forcibly evicted over 2 million people. Since then, tens of thousands more have been forcibly evicted. For example, in Rivers State, authorities forcibly evicted at least 28,600 people between 2009 and 2016. Lagos State authorities have forcibly evicted at least 50,000 people since 2013.’’

In his account, a church instrumentalist and resident of the area, Abiodun Owolabi, said he was traumatised when he beheld the level of demolition in the community.

He noted that after the demolition, he took his wife away from the place to ensure her safety.

Owolabi stated, “My wife is not with me. My one-year-old and I slept at the beach the day the exercise was carried out. This is unfair. The government should be fair to us.’’

One of the dwellers whose shop was demolished, Yetunde Johnson, said the bus driver contacted to pack her cans of alcoholic drinks to her place in Igando area of Lagos, demanded between N11, 000 to N15,000.

She said, “I live in Igando. I only come to Tarkwa Bay to do business. I was at home for six days. I was opening the shop that day when I heard gunshots. The naval men did not shoot anybody. They only shot into the air and gave us one hour to pack our belongings. We did not get any eviction notice.

“The government may have got some information regarding the area. I don’t have money to rent another shop, so I will stay for a little while before starting again. I know that God will strengthen and provide for me. If I want to rent another shop, I will need money. That place (Tarkwa Bay) is affordable. I sold there for years. I started from selling small things to drinks in a shop.’’

‘We should be well treated’

The Chairman Arewa Community, Tarkwa Bay, Mohammed Zanna, narrating his ordeal to MyNigeria.com, urged the government to do things democratically.

He said, “The government complained of vandalism and that is why they evicted people from our community. There are security agents all over the area. There is no way people can vandalise pipelines without being caught. Why are we paying the price? We should not be treated as people with no rights.’’

One of the community leaders in the community, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that there was no notification before the demolition.

The community leader said, “Above all, we were not informed. They only came in that morning and ordered people to vacate the place.’’

He, however, noted that the outcome of a legal case instituted by a rights activist on behalf of the community on the matter would show them the next line of action.

“One, we were not informed. It came unexpectedly. There was no notice prior to the demolition. You don’t do things like that and tell people to start packing. If the government wants to take the land, they ought to have provided a place to resettle the residents,’’ he stated.