The Nigerian Navy has forcefully ejected residents of Tarkwa Bay in Lagos State out of their homes over unknown reasons.
This was made known by a worker of the Citizens Connect & Advice Centre and Charles Development Foundation on Saturday through her social media page.
She said that these community, even though backwards, practises their constitutional right through voting but the hands of the government in the community are few.
She wrote, “Over the last four years, we have worked with the Atlascove Host Communities of in Tarkwa Bay Island ( comprising of, Tarkwa Tarkwa Bay, Okun Ayo, Agbagbo, Ebute-Oko, Store&Ogogoro village) through our Good Governance Grassroots Project, to empower voiceless communities with the knowledge and skills to organize, engage and hold their elected representatives to account to bring about development in the community.
Today, members of these communities have been thrown out of their homes, some already have their houses&batchers broken as seen in the video on Tuesday, I was inundated with calls and messages from residents and community leaders that men from the Nigerian Navy gave residents an hour to vacate their houses, a place most of them have called home for over four decades. I have restrained from posting about it until we have consultations with community leaders and other stakeholders and gather facts to see that necessary actions are taken to address the situation.”
She also called on people to help the community with relief material so they can survive these hard times.
“Since the demolishment started the Just Empowerment Initiative #JEI @justempower (an international organization supporting many evicted communities) has been helping with relief materials and supporting the homeless with building a temporary shelter at Agala, another community along the Lagos coastline. If you want to support please send relief materials and donations to the JEI (see pictures for details). You can drop your in-kind donation at the JEI office, 310, Herbert Macaulay Way, Sabo Bustop, Yaba, Lagos.
Tarkwa Bay Island has a public Primary and Secondary school, a primary health centre, Police Post, Military base and other systems to show Government presence even though they lack other amenities. School children were in school when the Navy started shooting and chasing residents out of their homes, parents were separated from their kids, I can’t imagine the pandemonium. What’s the value of human life in this country?”
“The communities have INEC polling units, during elections, the residents vote for their “representatives” who visit them during the campaign and now there is a deafening silence from the State Government and lawmakers representing the Island. I would implore you to loan your voice to speak to all Government actors and speak up against this Injustice.
I believe in the power of media to advocate for justice, we need you to contact their representatives to act on this issue. You can contact Governor @jidesanwoolu Sen.@oluremitinubu @Jidekoro (Federal Lawmakers representing the people of Tarkwa Bay), Hon. Rasheedat Abiodun ( The Chairman Iru/Victoria Island LCDA) and Hon. Gbolahan Yisawu (State Lawmaker) and many others who can help save voiceless people who have been rendered homeless.
Our organization Citizens Connect &Advice Centre and Charles Development Foundation will be supporting the JEI to take all necessary actions to enforce their fundamental rights and redress for the breach. Please join our efforts to save helpless coastal communities.”
Watch video here… <blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>On Tuesday, I was inundated with calls and messages from residents and community leaders that men from the Nigerian Navy gave residents an hour to vacate their houses, a place most of them have called home for over four decades. <a href=”https://t.co/JxU4ijt2lK”>pic.twitter.com/JxU4ijt2lK</a></p>— Francisca K Chiedu (@kxesca) <a href=”https://twitter.com/kxesca/status/1221020340534611969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>January 25, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
