Some 200 residents of Ifesowapo, a Lagos slum, are now living in terrible conditions after a fire incident, OLALEYE ALUKO writes
It is a windy evening on Jones Street,
off Apapa Road in Ebute Meta West area. Most people are hurrying to
their houses as the increasing breeze suggests a rainfall might be on
the way. But for Ifesowapo, one of the communities in the area, the
residents are in a different mood.
Rather than taking cover in any building,
the people in this community, in groups of their families, are
arranging some planks and burnt roofing sheets in the open environment,
and spreading clothes on the surface to make it ‘comfortable’ for
sleeping. The time is 9:45pm on Sunday.
Ifesowapo Community may be a slum but it
is located in the heart of Lagos. The community, which had approximately
3,000 residents before a recent fire disaster displaced many of them,
shares boundary with Otto Town, on Jones Street, off Apapa Road, Ebute
Meta West in Lagos Mainland Local Government.
Woken up by fire outbreak
About a week ago, Wednesday, April 2
precisely, the residents had also been sleeping in the comfort of their
houses when the unbelievable struck them. Around 2am, the people were
woken up by the raging noise of a large fire which broke out from an
unidentified source and razed their shanties – most of which were built
with half-block and half-plank.
After the inferno had raged for about
three hours, hundreds of their houses had become ashes. The billows of
smoke emanating from the community that morning would seem to
neighbouring areas as a bomb explosion.
Indeed, to the displaced people, the fire
on that morning looked like a nightmare. But the smoke reminded the
wailing residents that the fire was real – as real as the agony they
would be having in the following days. Part of this agony is that, for
those who do not have an emergency residence to relocate to, sleeping on
the rubble is the only option.
One of these landlords, Mr. Afolabi
Morufu, who lost an eight-bedroom apartment, and has lived in the area
for 21 years, explains their ordeal better.
He says, “After the fire incident, we had
no place to go because most of us are low-income earners. I am a
commercial driver, married with five children. Some people have
temporarily relocated, but those of us who can not have to be spending
the night in the open space.
“What we do is to arrange wood on these
ashes and you see each family sleeping on their plots of land. It is
unbelievable but we have no other option.”
Another victim who is Morufu’s neighbour,
Mr. Kamorudeen Sulaiman, confirmed this, and the two men on Friday
afternoon took this reporter round the area which has been reduced to
rubble. Only burnt roofing sheets, broken bottles and China ware,
however, remain to testify that some houses had once been erected there.
Children at mercy of mosquitoes
Still in doubt about whether the
residents were truly sleeping on the rubble in the open environment,
this reporter decided to pay a visit to the fire-ravaged community on
Sunday evening.
Accompanied by the Secretary of the
Ifesowapo Community Development Association, Mr. Ishola Agbodemu, the
reporter’s walk around there reveals much more than the ears have heard.
On planks arranged on the ground to
minimise the effects of ashes, broken bottles and other forms of rubble,
the residents, each group as a family, gather together to eat and
sleep. The population, in each family is not less than five and the
young children are obviously more than the adults.
For a few families, the children are
sleeping inside mosquito nets, tied to makeshift walls, while the
majority of families simply leave their young ones to the mercy of the
mosquitoes.
Agbodemu explains how the few nets came
about, saying, “The fire incident happened on Wednesday morning. I was
not at home as I work with a security outfit, the Vigilantes Group of
Nigeria. I am the Head of Operation in Lagos Mainland Local Government. I
had two structures, a three-bedroom flat and a five-room apartment
which was used as community primary school.”
“By the time I arrived, the fire had
razed everything, except our people. Then, on Thursday, a
non-governmental organisation, Love and Social Justice Society, visited
us and distributed some relief items such as mosquito nets, toothpastes,
buckets and toilet soaps. These are the nets that are hung in the open
at night.”
It is also said that after the incident,
the residents contributed between N5,000 and N10,000 each to erect some
wooden structures. But this can only accommodate a few, as many others
still sleep in the open, particularly on their portion of land where the
houses had been.
“Since the fire incident, my family and I
have also been sleeping in the open. Just today, I bought a canopy for
N7,000 to make a tent, but we all are still lying on the rubble of our
burnt buildings.”
Like a refugee camp
One of the men interviewed on Sunday
evening, Mr. Paul Njoku from Imo State, says he has been living in the
community since 1999, and has nowhere to go after the incident.
“I have eight children and four
grandchildren. My six-bedroom apartment was razed by the inferno, and we
have been sleeping on these planks for about a week. Government should
please assist us in whatever way they deem fit. We are not saying they
should build houses for us, but we want to feel their presence, more so,
in the provision of social amenities,” he says.
While this discussion lasts, Njoku’s
grandchildren are fast asleep on the planks, partially covered with
clothes, while his wife sits on a stool near a stove, cooking. The
environment generally looks like groups of people from war-torn
countries, who have been brought to seek protection in a refugee camp.
Another resident, a woman and mother of
five children, Mrs. Zainab Ogunniyi, confirms that life has been
synonymous with hell since the fire incident.
“We eat, sleep and do everything in the
open, except to bathe. My husband is a vulcaniser, but his equipment
also got burnt on that fateful day because he doesn’t keep it in the
shop. He later constructed a fence with some burnt roofing sheets so
that we can have a compound, but we still sleep in the open,” she
laments.
Mrs. Yetunde Oseni, a mother of eight who
lost a two-bedroom apartment, a church building and a shop, also speaks
with this reporter.
“Since last week Wednesday, we have not
been able to cook. We buy food from hawkers when we are hungry. We
cannot take our bath during the day but have to wait till evening when
everywhere is dark.”
‘Government should give us amenities’
The secretary of the community
association explains the steps they have taken so far to get the
attention of their local government, and other government authorities.
He says, “On Friday April 4, we submitted
a letter to the Lagos Mainland Local Government office, and we are
still expecting their response. But so far, we have not got any
visitation, official statement or relief materials from any government
quarters,” he says.
Also, the chairman of the association,
Mr. Rasheed Lamidi, pleads with government to give the community basic
amenities such as good roads and water.
“We know that this is a low-cost housing
community which we founded for ourselves for as long as 25 years ago.
But we need the state government to assist our people to get over this
disaster. It is true that some have left but many others don’t have a
place to go. If these amenities were in place, the fire disaster
probably wouldn’t have had such paralysing effects,” the chairman
explains.
Agbodemu further sheds light on why government should rise to the help of residents.
“Although we are all low-income earners,
we are well registered with the Lagos State government. Our CDA was
registered under the Ministry of Rural Development and Infrastructure in
2008, and the association is also a member of Lagos State Marginalised
Community Forum.
“We do meet every month in the local
government and I am the general secretary of the forum, where we
coordinate 42 such communities in Lagos State. I believe government
needs to urgently give us basic amenities such as electrification, good
roads and ensure utmost protection for our people.”
He adds that many of the people have lost
confidence in government’s assistance because of the terrible
conditions they had to endure when such a fire disaster happened in the
community in 2010.
It is learnt that a fire incident like
the April 2 episode sacked Ifesowapo Community on Saturday, February 27,
2010. Then, all efforts by the residents to get government attention
had proved abortive.
An eyewitness, Alhaji Taiwo Olorunlagba, who got to the community 32 years ago, recounts the 2010 incident.
“When it happened on that Saturday, we
lost all our houses and we were sleeping in the open. Some days later,
the community mobilised and sent letters to the Lagos State Ministry of
Special Duties, and the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency.
“Truly, they sent officials to inspect
the extent of destruction. They even took photographs of the remains of
the fire. But after the visit, the video clips and photographs, nothing
happened,” Olorunlagba explains.
Sleeping in the open for eight months
Agbodemu adds that when residents waited
endlessly for government’s intervention, and none came, they had no
option but to start rebuilding after several months in the open.
“We waited for state intervention for
about eight months but didn’t get any. We were also asked to hold on the
reconstruction as assistance was coming from the state. We wrote
letters to the local government office then, which were not answered.”
It is gathered that what Ifeosowapo
community would then see was the marking of their structures for
demolition by some officials who claimed to have come from the
government. With no alternatives provided for them, the residents
therefore took the case to court, and it was heard at the Lagos State
Magistrate Court, Igbosere, Lagos Island.
“At the court, the government was
restrained, and told that our buildings could not be demolished without
the people’s consent. But we had already suffered for eight months
without any shelter,” Agbodemu notes.
Community school lost to fire disaster
As part of efforts to revive the
community after the 2010 fire outbreak, residents decided to found a
primary school and it began in the premises of the secretary’s house.
The school was named Young Leaders Academy and it grew to a population
of 90 pupils over the years.
It also had an evening class of about 65
pupils from other schools. The community employed four teachers who are
holders of the National Council on Education certificate, and was paying
their salaries monthly. However, when the school could be said to be at
its peak of performance, the April 2 fire incident brought it down to
ashes, displacing the booming school population.
Agbodemu says the school was a lifeline for the community children.
“Initially, what brought up this
community effort was that we reasoned among ourselves: how could we be
existing for over 20 years without a school for our children?
Unfortunately, there were no public schools in our area. So, most of our
children had nowhere to go.
“When we started in 2010, some NGOs came
and assisted the school by giving us textbooks, notebooks and other
writing materials. The school also had a computer laboratory, library
and after-school lessons, because people saw what we were doing and were
pouring in donations. Sadly, we lost the entire school building to the
April 2 fire incident,” he concludes on a sober note.
The school proprietress, Mrs. Abimbola
Olarenwaju, confirms that the school population has reduced drastically
as most families have been displaced by the inferno.
A visit to the school on Friday afternoon
reveals that the few pupils present learnt in a makeshift classroom
with no sitting and writing facilities.
“We will try our best to reconstruct the
classrooms, but we need urgent assistance from government and kind
members of the public, as these children must not stop coming to
school,” she pleads.
People should not live in shanties –Govt
The Lagos State Commissioner for Rural
Development, Mr. Cornelius Ojelabi, says the ministry has yet to receive
a formal letter from the affected community. According to him, due
assistance will be rendered to them when such is done.
“The ministry will lend necessary support
when we receive a formal letter from them. But actually, this case is
under the purview of the Ministry of Special Duties,” he says in a
telephone conversation.
Also, the General Manager of Lagos State
Emergency Management Authority, an agency of the Ministry of Special
Duties, Dr. Oke Osanyintolu, explains that as much as government
sympathises with the community, there is need to ensure that people do
not erect shanties which are vulnerable to fire disasters.
“We were on ground when the incident
occurred, and I am fully aware of it. We are having the enumeration
exercise at present to see what government can do for them to ameliorate
the effects of this disaster.
“Inasmuch as we sympathise with them, we
must put measures in place to make sure such things don’t reoccur.
People need to live fine, and a way to live fine is for us not to erect
shanties,” he says in an interview.
Osanyintolu adds that the community does
not need to write letters before the authority will respond to their
needs. He, however, notes that erection of shanties by people is a major
challenge for the Lagos State Government.
“Our problem is that such
houses are shanties, and these people are living in slums. You and I
know that this is improper in a proposed mega city such as Lagos. There
are low-cost housing schemes in Agbowa, in Ikorodu and other areas. So,
this is our concern,” he concludes.
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