By Adekunle Adekoya
Penultimate Wednesday, the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, on Wednesday, said the state government he works for has discovered dwellings under the Dolphin Estate Bridge, Ikoyi, where tenants pay N250,000 annual rent.
According to the commissioner, the under-bridge
dwellings, which he called apartments in his post on the matter on his X
(former Twitter) handle, had 86 partitioned rooms, sized “10×10 and 12×10”.
He added that the enforcement team of Lagos State’s Ministry of Environment and Water Resources had successfully removed all structures, including a container utilised for various illegal activities, from beneath the Dolphin Estate Bridge.
His words: “A total number of 86
rooms, partitioned into 10×10 and 12×10, and a container used for different
illegal activities were discovered under the Dolphin Estate Bridge.
“They have all been removed by
the enforcement team of the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment and Water
Resources.”
A Special Adviser to Governor
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Kunle Rotimi-Akodu, further confirmed the eviction of
illegal settlers from beneath the bridge towards Dolphin Estate in Ikoyi.
Rotimi-Akodu said 23 individuals
were arrested during the eviction, which was carried out by officials of the
Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps, popularly known as KAI on Tuesday.
Akodu said: “Squatters dwelling under
the bridge leading from inward Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi were evicted today
Tuesday, 30th of April, 2024 by officials of the Lagos State Environmental
Sanitation Corps LAGESC (aka KAI).
“These people created their
illegal settlement under the bridge, thereby exposing the critical
infrastructure to impending destruction. 23 persons have so far been arrested
and MoE/KAI will continue to monitor the place. The law will take its course.”
He also confirmed that the
bridge has hitherto housed 86 dwellings (rooms), partitioned into 10×10 and
12×10 with squatters paying an average rent of N250,000 per annum.
A day after, Mr Tokunbo Wahab announced that another
illegal settlement has been found under the Osborne bridge in the Ikoyi area of
Lagos.
I am afraid that the Lagos State Government has just
begun to scratch the surface in terms of illegal dwellings that abound in many
parts of the state. Apart from illegal dwellings, there also exists the
conversion of public spaces for personal use by many persons for various
purposes, in areas that are clearly not approved for such uses. It makes me
wonder who really is in charge of those public places. I will give a few
examples, which many Lagos residents must have been seeing as they commute
round the metropolis.
The space under the bridge,
provided by the interchange between Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and the Airport
Road, for instance, is currently in use by people who make concrete blocks. Who
licensed these people to use that space to make blocks? Before or after,
depending on where one is coming from, the space under the bridge at
Iyana-Isolo has been taken over and colonised by a plethora of users ranging
from heavy duty transport trucks, to food sellers, drinks sellers, artisans of
various descriptions and others. It seems to me that the Police does not see
the environment as part of the beat they need to police, because there is a
Police station at Iyana-Isolo where the officers and men look on as these
squatters appropriate public space for their use.
In the wake of the fire under
Apongbon Bridge in 2022, the Federal Government moved to sanitise the situation
by trying to evict some of these illegal users of under-bridge spaces. The
efforts, as far as one can see, were half-hearted, as many of the people
initially sent away seem to have regained their spaces. The situation is more
or less the same under many bridges in Lagos. Taking the bridge to Ijora
Western Avenue presents a spectacle of environmental degradation through
misuse.
Under the bridge at Ijora has
been converted to workshops by mechanics of heavy-duty vehicles, with the
grounds around there completely blackened by the repeated dumping of used
automotive oil. No less is the same for the bridge at Mile 2. Under the bridge
at Mile 2, a wide range of activities from sand scooping to water
transportation with the construction f wooden jetties take place.
The kind of characters you see
there are not people you want to encounter after 6 pm. In the Oworonshoki area,
under the bridge flying the Third mainland Bridge, people are scooping sand
from under the waters there and selling. Under almost all of the bridges,
open-hearth cooking goes on all the time by food sellers, while users and
sellers of narcotics openly ply their trade without let or hindrance. It makes
me wonder what our concept of security really is.
The illegal dwellings under the
Dolphin bridge is just one case of many in the illegal conversion and use of
public space. Who is responsible for these things? For all I care, an alien from
Libya or Seychelles may come into the country, select an ungoverned public
space in any of our cities, and start manufacturing a nuclear device or some
other weapon of mass destruction, right under our noses because our idea of
security is so shallow. To borrow from a famous bombast, what an odoriferous
saga!
*Adekoya
is a commentator on public issues
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