Magodo Landlords Fallout

Residents of Magodo Phase 2 estate in Lagos, late last year December 2021 woke up to the shock of their lives when dozens of policemen and officers of the Shangisha Landlord Association invaded the estate to execute a court judgment.

According to eyewitness accounts, the police officers and members of Shangisha Landlord Association came with bulldozers in an attempt to pull down properties within the estate.

The officials said they were acting on a Supreme Court judgment that mandated the Lagos State government to give back 549 plots to the original owners of the area, the Shangisha Landlords Association.

Reacting to the development on behalf of the State government, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Ministry of Justice, Lagos State, Moyosore Onigbanjo, in a statement condemned the step saying that the action of Chief Adebayo Adeyiga (one of the Judgment Creditors) misled the Nigeria Police in attempting execution of the Judgment notwithstanding the pending appeal against the issuance of a warrant of possession by the then Chief Judge of Lagos State on March 16, 2017.

To find a lasting solution to the crisis, the Lagos State government recently set in motion a process to find and allocate vacant land around the Shangisha village scheme to the 549 Shangisha Landlords.

Following the State Governor’s meeting with key stakeholders in the matter, six resolutions were arrived at. Among the resolutions were that; “Surveyor-General of Lagos State, Permanent Secretary Lands Bureau and Hon. Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development are to immediately set out and identify available plots of land within the Shangisha village scheme.

“The Committee is to identify how the available plots are to be accessed and whether any infrastructural development is necessary to access the land. Upon identification of available and accessible land, the State Government is to immediately allocate same to the 549 Judgment Creditors.

“If there is no available and accessible land within the Shangisha village scheme to allocate to all the 549 Judgment Creditors, the State Government in agreement with the Judgment Creditors is to provide alternatives plots of land.”

If the government is to embark on this execution there would be many government plots of land off the market. It is also likely that the Magodo incident will embolden others who have similar claims to Government built estates to push for the same type of solution.