Scores of motorists and passengers were stranded on Monday as residents of Iyana Oworosonki staged a protest against the demolition of their homes.
The demonstrators, who were displaced by the exercise, blocked the Oworonshoki axis of the Third Mainland Bridge, leading to heavy traffic along the busy corridor.
Armed with placards bearing inscriptions such as “Stop demolishing our houses,” “Stop demolishing our life,” and “Give us back our lands and houses,” the protesters voiced their anger over the state government’s action.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Olohundare Jimoh, alongside other senior officers, was at the scene to restore order.
The demolition, carried out in the early hours of Saturday, September 6, was part of a state-wide enforcement drive targeting unapproved buildings along Lekki and Iyana Oworosonki coastal lines.
Just days earlier, the Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development had warned that unchecked sand dredging—estimated at 10,625 cubic metres daily—posed a grave threat to the ecosystem, aquatic habitats, and the stability of lagoon and waterfront areas.