Eko Bridge Fire: Federal Govt, Lagos To Clampdown On Squatters

Indications have emerged that the federal government and Lagos State government would collaborate to clampdown on squatters under bridges in the state who defied the vacation order by both governments and remained on the facilities.

The Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu had ordered all occupants and traders under all the bridges in Lagos to vacate within seven days after the March 23, 2022 fire outbreak that destroyed Apongbon Bridge in Lagos Island.

While the government was still making frantic efforts to repair the Apongbon section of Eko Bridge gutted by fire, another fire incident was also recently recorded at the Ijora Olopa section of the same bridge in the area used as a frozen food market.

Speaking at a press conference after inspecting ongoing repair works on the bridges, the minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, accompanied by the Lagos State deputy governor, Dr. Kadri Hamzat and special adviser to Lagos State Governor on Works and Infrastructure Aramide Adeyoye, lamented that while the government was trying to repair the damage caused by fire in Apongbon section of the bridge, the illegal dwellers set fire on the same bridge at Ijora end.

He explained that the latest inferno necessitated the suspension of the Apongbon because the Ijora was more urgent adding that the sad news was that there would not be Apongbon this Christmas.

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He said if nothing was done ‘’ Those bridges are going to come down and they are going to kill people, very, very extensively, I don’t want to be here and we will be picking dead bodies under the rubbles in the bridges, because we are gradually getting closer.

‘’So we are reaching the point where we are telling the Lagos State government that you have our support. You have our encouragement and that we will work side by side with you to remove those residents who use under bridges as places of trading , you can be cooking there , setting up manufacturing and assembly processes there, you are not only endangering your own life but the lives of others. As these fires happen, they disrupt everybody’s plans.’’

Also speaking, the Lagos State deputy governor, Hamzat, said some residents were destroying their lives by the way they had decided to live their lives, saying it was wrong for certain individuals to live their lives and destroy other people’s lives.