After court loss, Otodo Gbame community ready to parley LASG

There appears to be a bright light at the end of the tunnel between the Otodo Gbame community and the Lagos State govt after the former lost in court on Wednesday in its bid to charge the state for contempt over the alleged demolition of their shanties at the prime waterfront settlement in Lekki. 

It was gathered that the Otodo Gbame community after a peaceful rally at the state house on Wednesday evening reached an agreement with Lagos State government on the way forward for a few of the people who might require assistance for resettlement. It was learnt that three cabinet members attended to the Egun-born settlers and at the end of the meeting, the community nominated six people who will meet with the Lagos State representatives next Tuesday, immediately after Easter break to examine the way forward.

The Otodo Gbame community had on Wednesdsy lost the contempt case instituted against Governor Akinwunmi Ambode at the Lagos High Court where Justice Onigbanjo struck out the case for lack of jurisdiction. The waterfront community, which belongs to a private family but is being illegally occupied by foreigners, had been razed down by fire in November last year after a deadly inter-ethnic clash ensued between the Yoruba and Eguns within the community. It was a similar inter-ethnic clash on the waterfront that took the life of one of them last Saturday, prompting the Police to move into the area to restore order. Due to security intelligence that linked the illegal community with criminal elements like militant kidnappers and armed robbers, Lagos State Environment Task Force had to clear the illegal shanties that were still being erected on the waterways since the community had been razed down completely and had become unsuitable for human habitation.

Although many of the fishermen who lived in Otodo Gbame had returned home to their original abode in Badagry, Cotonou, Porto Novo and Lome, vested interests, especially foreign NGOs have continued to mislead and prompt the remaining fishermen to become recalcitrant. It should be recalled that Otodo Gbame which was originally known as Ilado was a temporary fishing outpost in Lekki until fishermen from Badagry, Benin Republic and Togo turned it into a community with unsavoury lifestyle and security threat to the general public.