A 2017 decision in a lawsuit brought on behalf of the residents of Ilaje-Utumara and several other informal colonies show that government officials argued that they were illegal squatters and that the communities violated environmental laws and constituted a threat to security.
The High Court of the State of Lagos revealed that the members of the community had shown no evidence that they had the right to occupy the land, and under the law, the land was subject to the management and control of the Governor of the State of Lagos.
But the decision also declared that it would be unconstitutional to expel members of the community without informing them properly or providing another place to settle. He ordered the parties to start consultations on how to move the residents and said that government representatives could not expel them until these talks were finished.
More than 13,500 people had occupied around 1,056 wood and concrete structures in Ilaje-Onumara, an area covering approximately 56 acres in the Lagos continent, said Jude Ojo, a community leader. He was a plaintiff in the judicial case and continues to plead for displaced people.
Ojo said expulsion notices had been served in the community before demolition, but that resettlement consultations were still underway when it happened.
The initiatives of justice and empowerment, a Nigerian non -profit organization which represented residents of the trial, published a declaration with other defenders qualifying the operation of demolition of “mass of Kamikaze style has forced its expulsion in violation of substitution orders in court”. The group blamed representatives of the state government, the police and boys in the region.
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has also criticized the demolition of the beginning of March of Ilaje-Notumara and another local informal regulation, affirming that Nigeria must arrest “a ruthless campaign of demolitions at home and forced expulsion in the colonies at the seafront in Lagos”.
The press release called the “Privileged sites for the development of luxury housing” and said that displaced people should obtain alternative housing and compensation for lost goods.
The UN describes informal establishments as communities that are formed in urban areas which generally lack basic services and urban infrastructure, and where housing provisions go to squat it to informal rentals.