DEMOLITION: Evicted Oworonshoki Residents Sell Belongings For Peanuts.

Chai.

Days after the Lagos State Government demolished waterfront communities along Tolu Alashe Street in the Oworonshoki area of Lagos State during a midnight operation, many displaced residents—mostly women and children—remain stranded in the open, without shelter, assistance, or a place to relocate to.

When the area was revisited yesterday, the once vibrant neighbourhood had turned into a wasteland of rubble. Piles of broken concrete blocks, scattered roofing sheets, and abandoned household items covered the dusty paths where hundreds of families once lived and carried out their daily activities.

Many personal belongings lay outside, while some women, with tearful faces, were seen trying to sell a few items for money. Among those sitting helplessly by the roadside was Mrs Rebecca, a mother of one, who said she had considered taking her own life after losing her home, shop, and savings to the demolition. “I just came back from the hospital,” she began weakly, sitting beside a rusted pot and an old standing fan.

“I have a problem with my spinal cord, so, after a little treatment, I returned home that night, if I could sell a few things before my two-month-old rented house was demolished. I paid N360,000 for my two-room apartment. I just finished paying when they came at night and broke everything. I wanted to kill myself, but my sister stopped me.”

Rebecca, who previously ran a small food business, said she had begun selling her few remaining possessions, including her fan, to scrap buyers (“aboki”) for as little as N1,000 just to feed herself and raise some money for rent.

“I bought that fan for N35,000, but the aboki said N1,000. I don’t have a choice,” she said tearfully.
“I need money to eat, to treat myself. Everywhere I turn, there is no help.”

Several aboki were observed in the area negotiating with women to buy their damaged or leftover household items.

Another affected resident, Mrs Jumai, who had lived in the community for ten years, recounted how she and her children narrowly escaped during the night of the demolition.

“They came about 11 p.m.,” she said.

“We were sleeping when our neighbours started shouting that the bulldozers were close. We carried what we could and ran out. My house and my shop, where I sell pepper soup and drinks, were in the same compound. They broke everything.”

Jumai added that her children’s school was also destroyed during the operation. “We stayed here with the school, and everything is gone. I don’t even know where to start their schooling again,” she lamented.