As most families look forward to a New Year with high aspirations, the Lagos State government chose the moment to send bulldozers to demolish Monkey Village, a poor settlement in Ikeja, leaving hundreds of families in disarray.
The demolition was without notice, no time to move out belongings because the bulldozers came like the prophetic thief in the night. Even education resource centres, like the ICT hub and other youth and children, empower projects provided to the community by CEE-HOPE, a non-governmental organization devoted to the protection of children, especially those in slum communities, were not spared. Within hours, Monkey Village has become huge rubble.
On her Facebook page, Betty Abah, executive director of CEE-HOPE, lamented: “This rubble is what has become of Monkey Village, an informal community in Lagos. This right now is what has become of our ICT Centre in the community, a place of learning, of improvement of the lives of less privileged kids. AND WITH ABSOLUTELY NO PRIOR NOTICE.”
She explained further: “Monkey Village is on private lands and with the understanding of the landowners. It did not stand in the right of ways of government infrastructure or projects, just one struggling community of the urban poor. And painfully, like Otodogbame three and half years ago, our development program for yet another set of less privileged children in yet another impoverished community has been brought to an abrupt end.
“Lagos State Government, why today, a day to the New Year and in the midst of a pandemic and a major economic recession? Where do they go to now? I am speechless,” she said.
