Makoko Area Resident Shot, Community Resists Police Efforts to Evict Them From Their Homes, Tensions Are High

                

                                       Tensions High in the Makoko area of Lagos State

            

Residents in the vicinity of the Better-Life Market, just behind the coastal Makoko area of Lagos State, on Friday clarified that one member of the community was shot in the leg, at close range with a tear gas cannister, and taken away by the police.
They denied some reports in the local media that three community members were killed in the last police invasion. The residents, however, confirmed that one person was shot in the leg by the police, and taken away.

One landlord, who witnessed the attack by police on the community, told Saharareporters that the current state of health of the victim is not known. He is believed to be seriously injured. What is also not known are his whereabouts, since the policemen took him away after shooting at him on Thursday.
The witnesses in the community said that the police were kept ‘at bay,’ and were prevented from demolishing local houses in the district. Police and community relations in the Makoko area are tense this weekend. Many view the cops as ‘attackers,’ and are seen by many as offering the community very little difference, or choice, between standard criminals, and the government force that is sworn to protect them. 
The community members who stepped forward and spoke with a SaharaReporters correspondent said, the policemen “have routinely invaded the community with a mission to demolish their houses and take them over,” but each time are met with stiff resistance.
"Since about two years now they (police) have been coming (in and) wanting to force us out of our homes," a resident said, explaining, that (the police) had made an attack with heavy weapons on the residents, each time they invaded the community.
Lately, the inhabitants of the district told a SaharaReporters correspondent, that the police had doubled their numbers on their periodic invasions of the community. Many in the Makoko area community view the police as a kind of occupying force, rather than civil servants working for the common good.
"Now they come (here) like every two weeks, and they go back to remake their strategies after every visit, (in which they are met) with resistance from the community," a trader at the Better-Life Market said. The trader who did not offer her name, added that, the community expects (the police) to return again by end of the month.
"We are against the idea that police would just invade us, and ask us to suddenly quit our homes, and leave, (giving us) 48 hours notice (to leave,)" she continued, and added that, most of their homes have been there for more than 100 years, and now most of the residents, with deep roots in the Makoko area, have nowhere to go.