18th October, 2010
Residents of Ilasan and Ikota Housing Estate, popularly called Maroko evictees, on Thursday trooped out to protest against what they described as man’s in humanity to man.
The hundreds of residents were kicking against the alleged illegal blockage of a major access road leading to the Ikota Housing Estate by a Lagos-based businessman, thereby preventing them from having access to their respective homes, and leaving them to wade through the swampy bush to access the Lekki-Epe Expressway.
The protesters, who carried placards with the inscriptions like: Enough is Enough, Don’t Seal Up Our Road and Maroko Evictees Say No To Ikota Estate Blockage, marched from Ilasan Estate to Eti Osa West Local Government office, complained that since the man allegedly blocked the only access road to Ikota Estate with a fence because of the hotel he built by the roadside, they have been facing untold hardship.
They therefore called on Governor Babatunde Fashola to come to their aid before the situation degenerates.
Narrating their plight to the chairman of Eti-Osa East Local Council Development Area, Hon. Anofi Olarewaju at the council secretariat, the leader of the evictees, Mr. S.A Aiyeyemi said: “We are protesting the illegal blockage of our major access road into Ikota Estate, a route we have been using for the past 20 years, by a businessman who had just built a hotel there.”
“We are law abiding citizens and we do not want to take the law into our hands. That is why we are protesting to inform everybody about how one man is holding about one million people hostage in Ajah. What we are saying now is that we want the fence demolished for peace to reign,” Aiyeyemi added.
After listening, Prince Anofi Olarewaju Elegushi told the protesters that nobody can be allowed to block any road in Lagos State today.
He immediately ordered that the second gate be pulled down to enable residents have access to their respective homes. He promised to pull down the whole fence within two weeks after investigating at the physical planning office in Alausa if the developer of the property has the legal backing to block a major road.
—Paul Iyoghojie
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