The former Labour Party governorship candidate in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has accused operatives enforcing a demolition exercise in the state of assaulting residents, unlawfully detaining victims and destroying evidence of alleged abuses.
Mr Rhodes-Vivour, who defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) last year, made the allegations in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Friday, following his visit to the affected community in Jakande Housing Estate, in Ilesan, Lagos State, on Wednesday.
According to him, security operatives and suspected government agents violently attacked residents during the operation, including a man he identified as Engineer Maro, whom he said was beaten until he collapsed.
“I visited the site on Wednesday. Maro is the person I’m talking about. He was beaten into a coma and is currently in detention,” Mr Rhodes-Vivour said. “They are now demanding that we produce senior civil servants as sureties before he can be granted bail.”
He said he personally witnessed several assaults during the operation, estimating that between 15 and 20 residents were attacked.
“I directly saw two to three people being assaulted. Multiple people used sticks to beat one man until he fell to the ground and passed out,” he said.
Mr Rhodes-Vivour, also alleged that operatives destroyed phones belonging to residents who attempted to document the incident.
“They snatched a man’s phone and destroyed it. That is something they are very good at,” he said, adding that similar incidents occurred during previous confrontations involving demolition exercises in the state.
He accused the Lagos State Government of acting in defiance of court orders restraining the demolition.
“There was an injunction by the court stopping the demolition, but it was completely disobeyed. This is a lawless government that expects citizens to be law-abiding,” he said.
The former governorship candidate further alleged that the demolition was driven by land grabbing and profit rather than public interest, arguing that compensation offered to affected residents was inadequate.
“People are turned overnight from landlords into homeless persons, with compensation that cannot secure rent in the same area. Meanwhile, the land taken from them will later be sold for hundreds of millions of naira,” he said.
He maintained that the cleared land was not intended for affordable housing but for luxury developments, adding that similar demolitions had occurred in Makoko and other waterfront communities.
“These are communities that have existed since the 1800s. Indigenous Lagosians who have lived there for generations are being displaced, while profit is prioritised over their well-being,” he said.
Mr Rhodes-Vivour called on Nigerians and civil society organisations to challenge what he described as growing impunity by the Lagos State Government.
“This aggression against residents and land grabbing must be reported, resisted and challenged,” he said.
How it started
In a post on X on Thursday, Mr Rhodes-Vivour said he visited Jakande Housing Estate, in Ilesan, Lagos State, where he alleged that operatives enforcing the demolition ignored a court injunction and assaulted residents.
He accused the government of worsening homelessness and the cost-of-living crisis by demolishing public housing originally built for low-income earners under the late former Lagos State Governor, Lateef Jakande.
In a separate post on Friday, he reiterated that the Lagos State Government continued to disregard court orders and violate property rights, citing similar demolitions in Otodo-Gbame, Makoko, Oworo and Jakande.
He referenced Section 28 of the Land Use Act, which provides that land may only be acquired for overriding public interest and that owners must be fairly compensated, arguing that the demolitions served private commercial interests.
Mr Rhodes-Vivour has repeatedly criticised the Lagos State Government over demolition exercises across the state, accusing it of prioritising elite interests over the welfare of low-income residents.
In October 2025, Mr Rhodes-Vivour condemned demolitions carried out in the Oworonshoki area of Lagos.
In a post on X, he accused the government of conducting the exercise at midnight without giving residents adequate time to evacuate their belongings.
“Government cannot exist solely for the interest of the rich in a state that is over 75 per cent poor,” he wrote.
He further alleged that lands cleared during such exercises were later appropriated and sold for large sums, calling on the government to ensure transparency and implement dignified relocation programmes for displaced residents.
Earlier, in September 2024, Mr Rhodes-Vivour called on the Lagos State Government to halt demolitions of waterfront communities, citing alleged demolitions in Okobaba and Ayetoro. He warned that the actions would worsen poverty, homelessness and insecurity in the state.
Describing the government’s approach to urban development as inhumane, he said demolishing informal settlements without providing viable alternatives amounted to a “systemic failure”.
He referenced demolitions in Okobaba, Ayetoro, Sogunro and Iwaya waterfronts and accused the government of misrepresenting the legality of some settlements, citing historical commitments by the late Mr Jakande to provide low-cost housing for affected communities.
READ ALSO: Makoko residents, civil society protest Lagos demolitions, allege deaths, rights violations
In May 2024, Mr Rhodes-Vivour also criticised the state’s demolition policy in an opinion article responding to comments by the Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Oluyinka Olumide, who had said that about 80 per cent of buildings in Ibeju-Lekki lacked government approval and would be demolished.
While the state justified the demolitions on the grounds of planning violations and right-of-way encroachments, Mr Rhodes-Vivour argued that years of institutional failure, corruption and poor urban planning had created the crisis, warning that demolitions should not be the government’s default response.
The Lagos State Government has yet to issue a statement or publicly respond to the allegations as of press time.
