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Over the past month, close to 10,000 people have been forcefully evicted from a riverside community in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos. Now, mass evictions are a recurring story in Africa's most populous city. Advocates say that these homes are being displaced by luxury developments. And as NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu reports, these displacements are often marked by deadly violence.
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: In Lagos, evictions can mean more than having to leave your home.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL SCRAPING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: It can mean watching it crumble, destroyed without notice, like thousands of residents along a stretch of waterfront communities.
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AKINWOTU: Bulldozers in Oworonshoki, a community on the edge of the Lagos Lagoon, crushed thousands of concrete structures and shanties, many of which had been there for decades. And despairing residents watch on, powerless to stop it.
ESTHER LAWAL: It's just like a dream. I wish it's a dream.
AKINWOTU: Esther Lawal (ph) is a 44-year-old mother of three, standing in the rubble of her demolished home with her 8-year-old son.
LAWAL: This is my kitchen. I'll cook here every day for my children.
AKINWOTU: For 11 years, she and her family lived in a three-bedroom flat she built with her late husband.
LAWAL: What I worked for years, me and my husband, they just take minutes to destroy all those things.
AKINWOTU: All her savings went into building the home, which was destroyed in just minutes, she says.
KULE UGUMBOALE: (Speaking Yoruba).
AKINWOTU: Nearby, 66-year-old Kule Ugumboale (ph) is bereft. He wanders around in circles around the ruins of his home, wailing and crying out to anyone who will listen.
UGUMBOALE: (Speaking Yoruba).
AKINWOTU: "I'm elderly," he says in Yoruba. "What work can I do now to survive? They are slowly killing us."
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AKINWOTU: Even by the violent standards of mass demolitions in Nigeria, the evictions in Oworonshoki have been brutal.
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AKINWOTU: Desperate residents search through smoldering heaps of charred furniture and clothes, slowly moving through a fog of smoke.
BLESSING: The fire - they burn everything.
AKINWOTU: One of them, simply called Blessing (ph), speaks in Pidgin and tells me moments ago, police officers came and torched what was left of the site. They even burnt the belongings she'd salvaged and kept in a heap near her home.
More than 10 residents have died in the demolitions, according to community leaders. Some were unable to leave their homes before they were crushed. At least one died of a suspected heart attack.
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AKINWOTU: The residents blame the Lagos state government and a local traditional ruler, Oba Saliu Babatunde, who they say is keen to develop luxury apartments.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Singing in non-English language).
AKINWOTU: This week, dozens of residents held a protest outside the state government office in Lagos.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Singing in non-English language).
MEGAN CHAPMAN: They did everything they were supposed to do, and what is happening is that they're being chased out.
AKINWOTU: Megan Chapman founded the Justice & Empowerment Initiative (ph), an NGO supporting evicted communities. They helped the community take the government to the Lagos high court and won an injunction stopping any evictions until the residents were consulted and rehoused. But the injunction was ignored.
CHAPMAN: They were supposed to be consulted with and resettled before any demolition should happen. But what we're seeing in this country, unfortunately, is that the rule of law is not being respected.
AKINWOTU: The government has said compensation claims in Oworonshoki are being processed, with residents paid only about $150. But the community claim none of them have received any money. Millions across Lagos worry they will face a similar fate. Up to 75% of the city's 20 million people live in informal housing, according to the World Bank.
UNIDENTIFIED WORSHIPPERS: (Singing in non-English language).
AKINWOTU: And some have nowhere else to go. Dozens of worshippers sing at the demolished site of the Christ Glory church. The walls and roof have crumbled, but for now, a small congregation has remained, holding a service surrounded by rubble. They are one of several communities who were rooted here, but who must now contemplate what comes next.
UNIDENTIFIED WORSHIPPERS: (Singing in non-English language).
AKINWOTU: Emmanuel Akinwotu, NPR News, Lagos.
(SOUNDBITE OF FUGEES SONG, "READY OR NOT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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