The Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has denied allegations by Amnesty International that his government is displacing some residents by pulling down their buildings as untrue.
A report by Amnesty International had said that an estimated 9,000 residents of Badia East were forcefully evicted from their homes without any form of compensation nor housing alternatives.
However, senior officials in the Lagos State government had claimed that the area was a rubbish dump.
Amnesty International’s Nigeria researcher Oluwatosin Popoola said, “The effects of February’s forced eviction have been devastating for the Badia East community where dozens are still sleeping out in the open or under a nearby bridge exposed to rain, mosquitoes and at risk of physical attack.”
Governor Fashola, however, claims that his administration plans to solve the problems by building 1,008 flats in Badia, so that people will stop living on refuse dumps.
The governor said the Badia community had for long been ignored and his administration had decided to pay attention to the community.
“Badia East community has been in existence since I was a little boy and nothing has been done to help their condition.
“The easiest thing to do is to take a bulldozer and bulldoze a slum because governments don’t create slums, it is people who do.
“What we did was to bulldoze away their difficult conditions. My administration has good plans for the Badia people by providing good roads, drainages and primary healthcare centres and good water for the community,” Fashola said.
No comments:
Post a Comment