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The Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC) writes to request your urgent intervention to avert the imminent forced eviction of twenty-six local communities in Lagos, Nigeria. Under the implementation of the Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ) project, hundreds of thousands of people will be removed from their ancestral homes of hundreds of years and their means of livelihood without compensation, resettlement, restitution or rehabilitation. Key communities to be adversely affected by the Zone include: Tiye, Imobido, Lege, Idasho, Imagbon-Segun, Itoke, Idotun, Lujagba, Elekuru, Olomowewe, Okunraye, Origanringan, Okegelu, Ikegun, Abejoye, Mudano, Eto, Idafa, and Ebute-Kosu.
These pastoral and fishing villages pre-date Nigeria and are important cultural and linguistic centers with long, unbroken ancestral histories. The target communities are at risk of losing over 16,000 hectares of land comprised of homes, ancestral villages, cultural and burial grounds, farmlands, access to fishing resources to be seized by the Lagos State government in favor of the Zone.
Launched on Thursday, May 11, 2006, the Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ) project is a US$260 million joint venture between the Lagos State government and a consortium of Chinese businessmen. At the groundbreaking ceremony, His Excellency Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu gave his word that the Lagos State government would adequately compensate and resettle all communities whose lands and homes would be acquired for the LFTZ. To date, events have shown a lack of interest and will to engage the local people and communities in fulfillment of that promise.
Ostensibly in response to the increasing consciousness and collective refusal of the targeted communities to yield to the unconscionable attempt by the authorities to take their lands without remedy, the Lagos State government unilaterally drafted a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). On its face value, the MOU was badly mutilated with mark-ups, alterations and revisions that revealed that it was either hastily prepared or designed to be unclear, imprecise or, quite frankly, worthless.
The MOU (purportedly pre-signed by the Lagos State Commissioner for Lands Fola Arthur-Worrey) was intended to be a tripartite agreement between the Lekki Community (via an undesignated representative), the Lekki Local Council Development Area (a non-legal entity that is not recognized under the Nigerian Constitution), and the Lagos State government. It was intentionally vague, making no references to any environmental impact assessment studies (EIAs) and social impact assessment studies (SIAs), two documents that are required by law for a project of this magnitude. Moreover, the MOU was completely silent on the how, when, or even whether the affected communities will ever be resettled, compensated and rehabilitated.
In collective and unwavering response, the local communities rejected and refused to sign the MOU. Particularly objectionable was the MOU’s assignment to the undesignated representative that he or she ensures that the communities peaceably yield possession of all land earmarked for the project, without concomitantly making specific assignments and binding governmental obligations. They have met regularly, mobilized, and are committed to ensuring that their heritage and burial grounds should not be denigrated, and that their human and peoples’ rights must be protected and respected.
Rather than open the space for real dialogue and consultation towards the development of a truly representative MOU, the Lagos State government has berated the communities for their perceived opposition to the project and reiterated its plans to commence the project’s implementation without the consent of the affected communities. In an August 18, 2006 meeting called by the state government summoning community leaders, SERAC and other legal representatives of the communities were denied participation, dampening concerted efforts to concretize processes for resolving the pressing issues of compensation, resettlement, restitution and rehabilitation.
The planned eviction of these thirty-six local communities constitutes flagrant violations of the right to adequate housing, the right to private and family life, the right to dignity of the human person, right to fair hearing, the right to work, the right to health recognized by several international and regional human rights instruments ratified by Nigeria, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Specifically, paragraph 16 of the United Nations Comprehensive Guidelines on Development-Based Displacement provides that “all affected persons, including women, children and indigenous peoples shall have the right to all relevant information and the right to full participation and consultation throughout the entire process and to propose any alternatives.” The Lagos State government of Nigeria bears a clear legal obligation to provide effective remedies to the project’s target communities. To the extent that the communities have not been adequately consulted, enabled to participate in making the relevant decisions, have neither been provided concrete plans for compensation, resettlement and rehabilitation and have been confronted with a clear and present danger of forcible eviction, the government of Lagos State is in breach of its voluntarily assumed human rights obligations.
We humbly request your urgent intervention to demand an immediate halt to the threatened eviction and to take seriously its legal and human rights obligations by ensuring full compliance with the rule of law, due process, and the democratic principles of transparency and accountability in the design, planning and implementation of the Lekki Free Trade Zone. In close consultation with the affected people, the government must immediately establish clear and concrete processes for resolving all outstanding matters regarding this project.
Many thanks for your expeditious response and intervention.
Yours sincerely,
Felix C. Morka
Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC)
Dear Friends:
Attached please find an Urgent Call for Action regarding the forced eviction of twenty-six communities under the implementation of the Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ) project in Lagos, Nigeria. Unless decisive action is taken, these communities will be forcibly evicted from their homes, ancestral villages, cultural and burial grounds, farmlands and fishing resources without consultation, compensation, resettlement, restitution or rehabilitation.
Please address your letters or other forms of intervention to the following persons:
His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu
The Executive Governor
Lagos State government
Governor’s Office
Lagos State Secretariat
Alausa, Ikeja
Hon (Chief) Adeyemi Ikuforiji
Honourable Speaker
Lagos State House of Assembly
Assembly’s Complex,
Alausa Secretariat
Ikeja
Professor Yemi Osinbajo
The Hon. Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice
Lagos State Ministry of Justice
(Lagos State Secretariat)
Alausa- Ikeja
Lagos
Mr Fola Arthur-Worrey
The Honourable Commissioner for Lands
Lagos State Ministry of Lands
(Lagos State Secretariat)
Alausa- Ikeja
Lagos
Mr Ayeola Abdulkabir Abayomi
Executive Chairman
Lekki Local Council Development Area
Lekki
Lagos, Nigeria.
Mr Segun Jawando
Chairman
Lekki Free Trade Zone Implementation Committee
12c Kayode Abraham Street
Off Ligali Ayorinde Street
Victoria Island, Lagos
Nigeria
Chief Oyewola O. Oworu
Executive Secretary
Lekki Free Trade Zone Implementation Committee
12c Kayode Abraham Street
Off Ligali Ayorinde Street
Victoria Island, Lagos
Nigeria
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