Inside Lagos’ home of meat, filth, Almajiri and crime
Take wild fun away from them and their lives may become meaningless. They may not have hope of a better future. They may not even have decent roofs over their heads. But a band of homeless people around the popular Oko-Oba abattoir in Lagos is trying to make the most of their present condition by turning their unapproved habitation into a den of wild nights, cheap s3x and petty and organised crimes. It is a crude setting where hundreds of children are being raised and thousands of people defecate in the open.
At the abattoir and its adjoining areas in the course of the past weeks, hundreds of residents were housed in shanties despite repeated demolition of such illegal structures by the government. The atmosphere in the evening and late at night around the slaughterhouse and the nearby railway line is quite different from what obtains in daytime. The day records less activity than night in the area.
Sleepless nights
Night-time activities usually start in advance here. Right from the railway line at Fagba, the reporter could see that scrap dealers were busy discharging their materials on already existing heaps. There were bands of young boys with empty carts, some of them chatting and exchanging pleasantries. Some lay in their carts. Others rested against their upright wheeled carriers. There was no indication that they would be going anywhere to sleep. Not too far ahead, there were groups of men smoking Indian hemp under half-built sheds, where maishai (tea sellers) were continuously discharging the hot contents of their locally-made kettles to customers. There were also women selling masa (bean cake) and other northern delicacies.
A generator repairer, whose shop is located by the railway line, said the people who usually occupy the shanties at night are miscreants from Oshodi and Ojota, most of whom have no visible means of living. According to the man, some of them do odd jobs like aaru (carrying goods around the market), scraps scavenging and water vending. Others, he said, simply engage in begging. “The whole place, including our shops, is made into makeshift bedrooms after we have gone home. Most times, traders don’t even like staying late in their shops for fear of being confronted by these people,” he added.
At about 8.30 p.m., some children carrying plates were seen going into the abattoir. They were almajiri returning from their daily alms-seeking activity.
Saturday Tribune, however, gathered that life around the shanties actually starts after 9.00 p.m., when the inhabitants gather to socialise. The typical activities that go on at the place, according to findings, include gambling. There are also joints where men and young boys freely smoke marijuana and cigarettes. It was also gathered that before the demolition and demarcation between the abattoir and railway line, there was a popular structure which housed ladies who satisfied men’s s3xual desires on commercial terms.
Den of robbers
Saturday Tribune also learnt that the railway line, the abattoir and the surrounding locations are home of stolen items. According to a resident, some elements, under the guise of selling metal scraps, carry out illegal activities in the area. “We see cars, which are still in good conditions, taken apart by these ‘scrap dealers’, within minutes,” the resident said.
There were said to be occasions when people came to the area to negotiate the release of their stolen properties.
“A couple of months ago, my friend’s house at Obawole was raided by armed robbers. Her father’s car, plasma television and other valuable items were stolen. The next day, the car was found in a location close to the railway line, where waste metal reprocessing activity is carried out. If prompt actions had not been taken, the vehicle would have been taken apart that night,” the resident, who identified herself simply as Adeola, said.
She explained that some residents hire a mediator to regain their stolen properties but most people are scared of going to the place because it is packed with wild-looking young Hausa boys. “One cannot predict their actions, so approaching them most times is difficult. This is aside from the language barrier,” she added.
The leadership of the Oko-Oba abattoir distanced itself from the activities of those living in shanties within and outside the slaughterhouse. One of the leaders explained that those working in the abattoir had been given temporary tents to stay in the course of their duties which, he said, include discharging of cows and washing of trucks. Such tents in the abattoir have been demolished by the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment. The manager of the abattoir, Alhaji Saidu Yusuf, told Saturday Tribune of the presence of people within and outside the abattoir who have no reason being there. He said the abattoir workers were recognisable to the leaders and the majority of those living there had no business being there. According to him, “some of these people have two or three wives without having any work to do. They are the ones building shanties all around. I am Hausa but I will not hide from the truth. The government needs to do something about these people.”
We’re under siege –Community
According to members of the community, activities at the abattoir constitute an environmental nuisance as the road leading to the two estates in front of the abattoir have been damaged by trucks used for transporting cows. Residents of the estates are said to have found alternative means of getting to their homes. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are said to be hellish for those living around the abattoir’s second gate. Those, it was gathered, are the days set aside for bringing the greatest numbers of cows into the abattoir. While the days are always a good time for the operators, they are dreaded by the residents as the cows are offloaded on the road before being dragged into the abattoir. On such days, the residents say, massive gridlocks are the order of the day as cows, pedestrians and vehicles contest for the use of the road.
Findings showed that metal scrap business shares in the responsibility for the damaged road. On a portion of the road from the rail crossing at Fagba-Iju Isaga, down to the railway line beside the abattoir, a line of trucks, which were packing metal scraps being discharged by many cart-pushing boys, was seen.
Besides the environmental threat posed by the abattoir users, the area, especially along the railway line where many shanties were recently destroyed by the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), is said to be reputed as a dangerous spot. All manner of crimes, it was learnt, are perpetrated there.
According to Hassan Lawal, a resident of Mobolaji Drive, the area, especially the space along the railroad line and the abattoir, is a dangerous spot. “All manner of crimes are committed in and around these shanties. We even hear that there is a motel with prostitutes there. I once overheard two boys, not more than 12 and 14 years old, discussing their exploits with the prostitutes. One told the other that the ‘woman’ he had sec with the previous night was not good in bed at all. The other boasted that he had s3x with a ‘woman’ as old as his mother rather than go for young girls.”
Another resident of an estate at Suco Road, who claimed to usually ply the railway line, Alaba Sanni, said there had been cases of rape, robbery and harassment at the place. “On our way home early in the morning from vigil in church, we always see used condoms, wallets, bags and sometimes torn clothes along the railway line. This indicates to us that in the course of the night, some atrocities had been committed,” he said.
Planned parks for cattle trucks
Speaking on the bad road and the attending gridlocks, the abattoir manager, Alhaji Yusuf, admitted that cows are often brought into the abattoir from across the country on Tuesday and this usually causes traffic. He, however, disclosed that the government had begun the construction of parks in the abattoir where the cattle trucks would be offloaded. “Yesterday, engineers were here to test the soil. Today, more engineers and surveyors are expected to work. This project has been frustrated for years by saboteurs within and outside the abattoir,” Alhaji Yusuf said.
Why my people defecate in the open –Seriki Fulani
The Seriki Fulani and leader of the community of northerners in the market, Alhaji Bello Dan-Mubaffa, in a chat with Saturday Tribune, blamed the government for the situation in and around the market. He warned that epidemic loomed at the market except certain urgent steps are taken. Alhaji Dan-Mubaffa alleged that the government had done nothing to improve the condition in and around the market since it was relocated from Apapa during the administration of former military governor of the state, Mohammed Buba Marwa. He also claimed that efforts of the traders had been thwarted by successive governments in the state through demolition of the structures that were put in place to improve the condition of the market.
“There was a cordial relationship between us and the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture. We communicated with each other on how to move the market forward. We thought we were at peace with them. We gave the ministry daily report about the market. Over the years, since we were relocated here during the Marwa administration, the governments continued to promise us infrastructure and to develop this place but nothing has been done. We have tried to do some of those things in the past but the [structures] have been demolished. Since they were not forthcoming, we decided to put things in place for our people. We have traders who have come from many other African countries; they are not just from the northern part of Nigeria. These people have chosen to stay here because it is safe. They don’t want to leave this place with their money,” Dan-Mubaffa said.
The market leader warned that the situation around the market would get worse following the recent demolition of about 24 lavatories in the market. He said that over 10,000 inhabitants and traders at the market now defecate in the open.
The Assistant Secretary of the Cattle Dealers Association, Alhaji Bashiru Alamin, told Saturday Tribune that: “The government has always promised us transit camp where people who bring cattle from the north and other African countries can stay but they have not done anything. When it was not forthcoming, we decided to do some things on our own. We contacted them and they approved a temporary place for the transit camp, which we constructed. But during the last demolition, the whole place destroyed.
“People now have to sleep and defecate in the open because what used to be their homes have been demolished by the government. Now, to make matters worse, there is no place to get water for our people and for the animals. We rely on water vendors who have increased their charges.”
‘We were caught unawares’
A couple of months ago, when the NRC began demolition of encumbrances along the railroad’s Right of Way (ROW) from Agege in Lagos State to Ijoko in Ogun State, there were protests from people who claimed that the Federal Government neither gave them sufficient notice before their structures were pulled down or paid them any compensation. While the protests continued for weeks after the demolition, some affected persons did not waste time in picking the pieces of their lives and illegal homes by remaking the demolished structures.
Soon afterwards, agents of Lagos State government demolished illegal structures and shanties in and around Oko-Oba Abattoir and Lairage Complex, a development which, according to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Oluwatoyin Suara, was in a bid to reform the red meat value chain system and to ensure that processing of meat was done in a safe and healthy environment. Suara said the illegal structures and shanties, apart from being on the landscape of the complex, were harbouring miscreants and contributing to the growing concern about health, environment and safety issues in and around the complex. After a series of meetings and consultations with stakeholders at the abattoir, in May, a task force was sent to the abattoir to demolish the shanties in order to give way to a modern, standard abattoir.
However, barely two weeks after the demolition of shanties by the railway line and in the abattoir, the shacks resurfaced.
Rebuilt shanties will be demolished –NRC
Spokesperson for the Lagos district of the NRC, Mrs Khadijat Aroyewun-Adekomaiya, said the corporation was unaware that the shanties recently demolished had been rebuilt. However, she vowed that the corporation would demolish the shanties because standard rail track would pass through the place.
“I can’t confirm it. Neither can I say it is not true, because I don’t have this information as of now. But obviously, whatever they are building there is a waste because it will be demolished because the standard gauge will go through it. They are just wasting their money. That is the reality. We don’t know the number of times we have actually demolished those structures. They are just wasting their time because we will definitely demolish the place all over again,” she said.
The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Olaiwola Onasanya, told Saturday Tribune that the government would continue to maintain zero tolerance for illegal abattoirs and shanties. “At the same time, the government is working in collaboration with the task force in to ensure that those illegal structures and shanties that have been dislodged do not come back, because the task force is there 24 hours a day. At the same time, the monitoring team is there at the Oko-Oba abattoir.
“The monitoring team makes sure that no structure is erected. We have zero tolerance for illegal structures and shanties within the abattoir. We want to maintain a hygienic and standard abattoir, following global standard procedure. That is what we are doing. There is still going to be more development at the Oko-Oba abattoir in terms of structures and infrastructure to promote the red meat value chain. It is work in progress,” Dr Onasanya said.
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