A 75 year-old visually impaired, Pa. Alade Irawo, owner of one of houses demolished in Mosafejo community, in Ikeja Local Government area of Lagos State, has appealed to the state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, to return his land to him as well as rebuild his demolished house.

Pa. Irawo made the appeal over the weekend at the demolition site where he joined other victims to appeal to Governor Ambode for return of their lands.

The septuagenarian said that since his house was demolished about a month ago, he is yet to have a place to lay his head and have been living at the mercy of Nigerians.

Pa. Irawo who claimed to have been living in the demolished community since 1940, expressed dismay on action taken by Governor Ambode by sending them packing from their land of inheritance.

Speaking on the situation the septuagenarian said: “I have been living in Mosafejo community since 1940s without any problem, but we were surprised that Governor Ambode can now demolished our houses with only seven notice.

“We are good citizens of this state, we pay our land use charge and an you other money demanded by the government. During election, the APC came to us and begged us to vote for them and we did, but what we have in return is to have our houses demolished without any alternative provision.

“Since my house was demolished, I have not set my eyes on my families, I having been wearing only one cloth, since all my properties were destroyed in the demolition, and I have been sleeping outside while surviving at the mercy of good Nigerians.

“I call on Governor Ambode to take a second look at our plight and return our lands back to us, or he should relocate us to another place”.

Another victim of the demolition, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ezeifechkwa Clement, also called on the state government to return them back to their land as well.

The retired ACP said all he laboured during his service in Nigeria Police, has been destroyed with the demolition of his houses in this area. I have my cof and other titles documents.

All we are calling for is for the community to be restore and property return to the original owners.

Also joining in appeal for the resettlement of the victims three human rights group namely: Human Rights Monitoring Agenda, HURMA, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, and African Youth Coalition Against Injustice and Impunity, AYCAII, also appealed to the Lagos state government to resettle the victims of demolition back to their land.

Comrade Buna Isiak the National Coordinator of HURMA said: “we are here to appeal to governor Ambode to have mercy on the victims of the demolition. They are not illegal residents, the government should do something about their plight, one of them, Pa. George Taylor, died recently as a result of the demolition.

“They are landlords and their houses were pull down with seven days notice, that is unfair, they have the right time live and owns property but since the government has rendered them homeless, we call on the government to return the land back to them or give them another place they can call home.”

Written By Paul Ladi, Lagos

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