Lagosians now make money from Oluwole rubbles

Oluwole after the demolition. Photo: Kunle Awosiyan

Following the decision of the Lagos State government to demolish the popular Oluwole Community to pave the way for the proposed mega city, Kunle Awosiyan reports how the displaced residents have turned the rubbles to a market place.

RESIDENTS of Oluwole Community in central Lagos State were known for their‘smartness.’

They were so intelligent that they could make a duplicate document look exactly like the original. Most of them were expert calligraphers, who could forge any signature written in any language including Arabic.

Oluwole, like any other Yoruba settlement in the state, was decked with monumental houses, where members of the extended family peacefully lived together though in an overcrowded circumstance.

But this community seized to exist late last year when Lagos State government moved in to demolish the houses to pave the way for the planned mega city.

Following the demolition, there was an earlier uproar by the residents, which later dissolved into money-spinning activities right on the ruins of Oluwole community.

The residents, having fought doggedly but lost gallantly to the state government, resorted to trading on the rubbles of their various buildings.

Lagos Life was at Oluwole community at the weekend and observed that some of the victims have turned the rubble into a temporary market place, where they collect money from roadside traders.

They have let out part of the land to traders for business activities and each trader pays between N150 and N200 on daily basis to the residents. They also made sheds of irregular sizes with nylon that shaded them from sun.

According to a resident, Mr.Raheem Ibrahim, those who had turned the place to market were tenants who could not be “settled” by their landlords.

He said, “The landlords have failed to ‘settle’ their tenants. That is why the tenants have decided not to leave the area until something is done to address the situation.”

Speaking about the illegal collection of money from the traders in the area, Ibrahim said it was part of the tenants’ protests to get their rents back from the government or their landlords.

Another resident, who refused to mention his name, said that he would continue to live in the hut until his plight is attended to.

He said, “I don’t know where to go or what to do now. I have been living at Oluwole for years and I have just renewed my rent before government arrived to demolish my house. I think one of the ways to get my money back is to let part of the land out to traders.”

He explained, “Many of us still have our loads packed at the road side waiting for assistance from God, while some have been selling their properties so as to get enough fund to transport themselves back to their home states or rent another house.”

Also speaking, one of the traders, who refused to mention her name, told Lagos Life that she owned a shop in the community before it was demolished by the state government.

The trader who sells fairly used clothes said, “Despite the fact that I was once a shop owner in this area before the demolition, I still pay N150 to the landlord, Omo Onile, before I was allowed to sell on the rubbles now.

Responding, the state Commissioner for information, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, said that the state government had no plan to compensate the tenants, saying the compensation should be the responsibility of the landlords who had since been relocated to a new site in Shasha.

He debunked an allegation that government demolished the buildings at Oluwole Community without compensating the residents.

Opeyemi stated that the residents were adequately resettled before the demolition exercise.

According to him, the demolition exercise came after series of meetings and discussions with 79 families, which made up the community, adding that the series of meetings culminated in both payment of legal compensation to the families and resettling them in flats built by the government at Shasha.

He stated that government in its magnanimity had earlier provided accommodation for 40 of the 79 families and that the remaining 39 residents were given keys to blocks of flats located at Shasha recently.

“As at the time when we were talking of things that will boost the economy of the state and meeting the Millennium Development Goals, we cannot afford to be distracted. Government will not allow anything that will make it lose focus from the goal of the planned Mega-City concept,” he said.