Residents of Otodo Gbame area of Ilado in Lekki have agreed on a parley with the Lagos State Government after they lost the bid to charge the state for contempt over the alleged demolition of their shanties at the prime waterfront settlement.
A Lagos High Court in Igbosere had on Wednesday dismissed the contempt application filed against Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and some principal officials of the state government over alleged disobedience of court order on the demolition of illegal structures.
Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo struck out the case for lack of jurisdiction.
It was, however, gathered that the community after a peaceful rally at the State House, Alausa, Ikeja on Wednesday evening reached an agreement with Lagos State Government on the way forward for a few of the people who might require assistance for resettlement.
It was learnt that three cabinet members attended to the Egun-born settlers and at the end of the meeting, the community nominated six people who will meet with the Lagos State representatives next Tuesday, immediately after the Easter break to examine the way forward.
The waterfront community, which belongs to a private family but is being illegally occupied by foreigners, had been razed down by fire in November last year after a deadly inter-ethnic clash ensued between the Yoruba and Eguns within the community.
It was a similar inter-ethnic clash on the waterfront that took the life of one of them last Saturday, prompting the police to move into the area to restore order.
Due to security intelligence that linked the illegal community with criminal elements like militant kidnappers and armed robbers, Lagos State Environment Task Force had to clear the illegal shanties that were still being erected on the waterways since the community had been razed down completely and had become unsuitable for human habitation.
Although many of the fishermen who lived in Otodo Gbame had returned home to their original abode in Badagry, Cotonou, Porto Novo and Lome, vested interests, especially foreign NGOs have continued to mislead and prompt the remaining fishermen to become recalcitrant.
Otodo Gbame which was originally known as Ilado was a temporary fishing outpost in Lekki until fishermen from Badagry, Benin Republic and Togo turned it into a community with unsavoury lifestyle and security threat to the general public.
