Civil society groups and representatives of evicted communities have criticized the Lagos State Police Command over the arrest of peaceful protesters from Makoko and other waterfront communities during a demonstration in the state.
The protesters, including residents from Makoko, Oworonshoki, and Otumara, had gathered at Ikeja Underbridge and marched to the Lagos State House of Assembly and Governor’s Office to demand an end to forced evictions and seek justice for displaced residents.
According to the Coalition Against Demolition, Forced Eviction, Landgrabbing, and Displacement in Lagos State, despite constitutional protection for the right of peaceful protest and prior notice to the command, as a courtesy, the protesters were met by violence and teargas, scattering the crowd as they tried to sit peacefully and await oAicial attention and causing multiple injuries, damage to property, and several arrests.
The coalition rejected the police’s official explanation for the arrests, describing the response as a smear campaign and gaslighting aimed at distracting from the ongoing struggles of evicted communities.
Video footage and eyewitness accounts, the group said, confirm that protesters merely sat outside the Assembly gate awaiting official attention, and did not attempt forcible entry.
According to the statement, “When refused, they sat down outside the gate to await oAicial attention. There was no attempt, whatsoever, at forcible entry to the House of Assembly. Rather, in the face of peaceful, seated residents, the huge police presence opted to fire tear gas directly at protesters, with at least one young man struck in the leg and having to be carried away as his leg bled, while hundreds rushed away as they choked on tear gas.
“Several people had to seek urgent medical care for their injuries and the eAects of the tear gas. At least six people were arrested for no cause. While most were released later in the day, two civil society leaders, Hassan Taiwo Soweto and Dele Frank, were kept in
police custody overnight and are being charged today at the Yaba Magistrate Court.
“It is, unfortunately, not shocking that the same Government that heartlessly and unconstitutionally destroys the homes and lives of tens of thousands of vulnerable residents of Lagos would also violently crack-down on peaceful and lawful protest. But it is a clear sign that brutality and injustice that takes place in one place is also a threat to justice and rule of law everywhere.
“Peaceful communities that oppose land grabbing are often labeled as criminal hideouts prior to demolitions, and now our demonstrators have been smeared as agitators,” the coalition said in a statement. “This official narrative seeks to justify brutality and distract from our call for justice.”
The coalition urged Nigerians and the international community to stand in solidarity with evictees and called for an end to mass forced evictions, illegal demolitions, and disrespect for court orders, emphasizing the need for government accountability and respect for constitutional rights.
“Now evicted communities, including Otumara, Makoko, and Oworonshoki waterfront communities, with some Coalition members have spent the last decade trying to build engagement with the Lagos State Government around alternatives to forced eviction. In
the last two years, the same Government has systematically destroyed nearly every community that put it hopes and eAorts into participatory planning toward win-win partnership, defaulting instead to mass land grab in service of powerful private interests.
“We call on the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government of Nigeria to take urgent steps to address the underlying demands of evicted communities and our Coalition that were the subject of yesterday’s peaceful protest. We will not allow the
brutality and gaslighting of yesterday to distract us from our struggle for an end to brutal landgrabbing and urgent, concrete justice for the tens of thousands displaced. We will not stand silently while the Government brutalizes and dispossesses, amassing great wealth for the few and pushing the poor masses deeper into poverty. A luta continua!
