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The Lagos State Government has demolished 17 houses in the Lekki area of the state for encroaching on the road (RoW) of the Ikota River route.
The state’s Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, led a monitoring team with journalists to the site on Saturday.
He urged residents to stop carrying out actions that damage the ecosystem, saying that nature will always retaliate against human negligence and unlawful reclamation.
The commissioner said that the ministry had received complaints several months ago regarding illegal reclamation efforts aimed at narrowing the river’s boundaries.
Wahab said: “We stopped them then, but recently we were again alerted that the encroachment was aggressive again, with attempts to sell to unsuspecting buyers.”
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According to him, the ministry has now taken firm action to stop encroachment and remove all illegal structures in the area.
He promised that those behind the activities would be identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Regarding flooding, Wahab said it was impossible to completely prevent flooding in a coastal state like Lagos, which borders the Atlantic Ocean, lagoons and rivers.
“What we can do is mitigate the impact through resilient infrastructure, which Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu continues to provide and maintain,” he added.
