Democratic Socialist Movement

For Struggle, Solidarity and Socialism in Nigeria

By - DSM

MAKOKO: Lagos Community Rejects Relocation to Agbowa

Halt the Demolitions Permanently! Compensate the Victims! Develop Makoko! Don’t Destroy It!

On 15 March 2026, the people of Makoko held a mass meeting that sent an unmistakable message to the Lagos State Government of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu: they will not be moved. About 100 people, baales (community heads), the elderly, women, men and youth filled the meeting alongside members of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), civil society organisations like Justice for Empowerment Initiatives (JEI), and representatives of neighbouring communities similarly threatened by the Lagos State Government’s ongoing demolition spree. Civil rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) addressed the gathering. Hassan Taiwo Soweto of the DSM and the #EndBadGovernance Movement Lagos spoke. The community’s verdict was unanimous: they reject the government’s plan to relocate them to Agbowa in Epe, and they are right to do so.

By Sodiq Duro-Orike

Makoko is a waterfront community in Lagos State that has been in existence for more than a hundred years. Its people are fishermen and fisherwomen, traders and artisans who have built a way of life on the lagoon. They are not squatters on someone’s property, they are a community with a history, a culture, and a legal record of fighting for their rights that dates back more than a decade. There are court orders and judgements in favour of the Makoko people from 2012 until now. None of these has the Lagos State Government respected.

The current crisis began on 23 December 2025, when the Lagos State Government sent in amphibious bulldozers into Makoko. Residents described waking up to a low metallic rumble as the machines crawled across the lagoon and began pulling down one wooden house after another. The demolition continued into early January 2026, causing massive displacement and human suffering. At least seven residents of Makoko lost their lives. Among them was Epiphany Kpenassou Adingban, a five-day-old infant who choked from teargas fumes fired by police deployed to protect the demolition exercise. In total, across Oworoshoki, Owode-Onirin, and the other communities caught up in this wave of demolitions, 53 persons are reported to have lost their lives. These deaths demand accountability and justice.

The government has predictably framed the demolitions in the language of public safety. But as the DSM has consistently pointed out, the real objective is land grabbing, clearing the waterfront to hand it over to real estate developers, corrupt politicians and top government functionaries who want to build luxury estates in one of Lagos’s most strategically located areas. This is not a new script. In 1990, Maroko, a community of over 300,000 poor Lagosians near Victoria Island was demolished under the Raji Rasaki regime on the pretext that it was below sea level. The land was promptly handed to the rich. The same playbook is being run in Makoko today.

It is also worth noting the hypocritical role of the international community in this affair. The United Nations, through UN-Habitat and UNDP, had previously agreed to support a “Water City” project for Makoko, a plan meant to regenerate the community without forced eviction. Yet the Lagos State Government has used this project as cover while pursuing the exact opposite: a demolition that would wipe out the entire community. Astonishingly, the UN agencies involved have not publicly condemned this betrayal of the project’s original intent, even as their Secretary General regularly speaks out about forced evictions in Gaza. The silence of the UN on Makoko is a damning indictment of the selective moral vision of international institutions when the victims are poor.

A VICTORY OF STRUGGLE: THE JANUARY 28 PROTEST

The halting of the demolition was not a gift from the government. It was forced by the power of mass collective action. On 28 January 2026, over 5,000 residents of Makoko, Sogunro, Iwaya, Oko Agbon, Otumara, Oworonshoki, Ajegunle and Owode-Onirin marched to the Lagos State House of Assembly. The march was organized by the Coalition Against Demolition, Landgrabbing and Forced Evictions in Lagos State, which members of the DSM and the #EndBadGovernance Movement Lagos played a key role in establishing.

The government’s response to this legitimate democratic protest was repression. Under the command of Commissioner of Police Jimoh Moshood, now Assistant Inspector General (AIG), the police fired teargas into the crowd, injuring numerous protesters. Hassan Taiwo Soweto was specifically targeted, brutally beaten, and arrested along with Dele Frank (Arole Fela), a musician who participated in the protest. Soweto sustained serious injuries to his lower back requiring sustained medical treatment including weekly physiotherapy. The physical assault on him was allegedly personally supervised byMoshood.

Despite the repression, the protest achieved its immediate goal. The Lagos government was forced to halt the demolition. The State House of Assembly called on the community to send representatives for discussions and negotiations. This is the power of organized mass struggle. As Soweto himself has put it, the January 28 protest is the only reason over 300,000 Makoko residents still have a roof over their heads.

Subsequently, both Soweto and Dele Frank were charged before a Magistrate Court in Yaba on frivolous criminal charges, a persecution designed to intimidate and punish those who led the resistance. The DSM condemns these charges in the strongest possible terms and demands their immediate and unconditional withdrawal. We also demand justice for the victims of police brutality on January 28. It is scandalous that instead of being sanctioned for his role in the injury of protesters, Jimoh was promoted to the position of AIG heading Zone 2 of the Nigerian Police. However, Soweto has filed a fundamental rights enforcement lawsuit against Moshood and the Police at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos over his brutalization. The next adjourned date of the case is October 28, 2026.

We call on community people and activists to fight for the following demands:

  • An immediate and permanent halt to all demolitions in Makoko Oworoshoki, Owode-Onirin, Ajegunle, Bariga and other working people communities must be stopped comprehensively, not just paused.
  • Adequate compensation for all victims of the demolitions already carried out including the families of those who lost their lives and all those whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed in the December 2025 and January 2026 demolition exercise.
  • Provision of basic infrastructure within Makoko: clean pipe-borne water, proper sanitation facilities, electricity, healthcare and schools on the water, where the community lives. The government that can build Eko Atlantic City on reclaimed ocean land for the benefit of the rich can certainly build decent infrastructure for a waterfront community of working people.
  • Security of tenure for Makoko residents. The community must have formal legal recognition of their right to their land and their homes, so that they are no longer perpetually vulnerable to the threat of demolition.
  • A democratically constituted development committee including elected community representatives, civil society organisations, and independent experts to jointly develop a regeneration plan for Makoko that serves the interests of the people who actually live there. No plan for Makoko should be designed without the full and genuine participation of Makoko people.
  • Withdrawal of charges against Soweto and Dele Frank, and the return of all property seized by the police from anti-demolition protesters.

THE GUARD MUST NOT BE LOWERED

The halting of the demolition in Makoko is a victory that must be acknowledged. It is proof that when working-class and poor communities come together and fight, they can push back the machinery of state oppression. This is an important lesson, not just for Lagos, but for working people everywhere.

However, the community people and activists working in solidarity with them must not lower their guard for a single moment. The Lagos State Government has not abandoned its agenda. It has merely retreated tactically in the face of mass pressure. With the 2027 elections approaching, the Sanwo-Olu administration has a political incentive to avoid generating controversy and backlash. But once the elections are over, the danger is very real that the government will attempt to resume the demolition exercise.

This is exactly the pattern that has characterized Lagos State’s relationship with Makoko for over a decade. The government attacks, the community resists, the government retreats and then, when conditions allow, it attacks again. The history of Otodo Gbame, Mosafejo, and countless other Lagos communities that have been ultimately wiped out despite years of resistance should serve as a warning.

The Coalition Against Demolition, Landgrabbing and Forced Evictions in Lagos State must be maintained and strengthened. Links between Makoko and all other affected communities must be deepened. Trade unions (the NLC and TUC) must be pressured to take up the cause of housing rights as a working-class issue. The international campaign of solidarity must continue, with the spotlight kept firmly on the conduct of the Lagos State Government and the failure of UN agencies to uphold the community’s rights.