Inside Nigeria’s megacity where ‘unlawful ejections’ leave helpless families homeless

On a fateful Tuesday afternoon in February 2025, Comfort Adeoti, a resident of Badia-Ijora area in Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria, was stunned with the news of her apartment being demolished. She hurriedly flew from her shop to the house. By the time she got there, some of her properties had been packed outside, while others were nowhere to be found.

While she was able to retrieve some of her properties, many of her co-tenants lost all their belongings in the rumble despite making an advanced payment of two years rent in December 2024.

“I was in my shop that day when someone called to tell me that my house was being demolished. When I rushed down to the house, area boys had already broken in,” she said.

CAMPUS REPORTERS gathered that Adeoti’s landlady had earlier got demolition notice from the Lagos State Government before mandating her tenants to pay two years rent in advance. This sequence of events contributed to the tenants’ frustration, as they were forced to vacate the premises shortly after. The landlady’s actions seem to be in conflict with standard landlord-tenant protocols, which typically require a six-month notice period for tenants to vacate a property . 

To prevent unlawful eviction, the tenants visited a human rights non-governmental organisation to report the tyranny of the landlady but their efforts did not yield any positive outcome.

Till now, Adeoti is yet to settle down due to the exorbitant price of securing another apartment.

While shelter is one of the basic needs of man, homelessness in Nigeria is growing in leaps and bounds, following cases of demolition in different cities of the country, with Lagos leading the pack. 

According to homelessness data from the World Population Review last year, Nigeria has the world’s largest number of homeless people with 24 million of its population not having homes to live in. Aside from the 24 million homeless people, many more do not have appropriate access to a proper dwelling such as water, electricity and a good road network.

Helpless victims 

Imam Mustopha, another resident of Badia-Ijora recounted his ordeal with the oppressive power of Lagos landholders. He explained that the landlords usually overlook the procedural legal mechanism while waging power to overtake premises from tenants.

Mustopha mentioned that his attempt to renew the house rent was turned down upon expiration of the previous one. Instead, the landlord served him and other tenants a short notice to vacate the house.

“What they did to us was against the law. We did not refuse to pay, it was the landlord that failed to collect the rent from us. They chased us out before the time given, and did not even compensate us,” he said. 

For Sulaimon Qozeem, despite having an undue payment of eight months, he was given a week notice to vacate the house together with his parents. He bemoaned the oppressive actions of Lagos landlords, seeking government intervention to protect the tenants through strict regulations.

The aftermath of the illegal eviction was dire to Qozeem and his family, as they paid five-time of their previous rent to secure another residence.

“The major problem is that we have to pay ridiculous amounts. From N120,000 to N600,000,” Qozeem said, adding that he gave up pursuing a legal action against the landlord because his mother did not support it.

Lagos – epicentre of homelessness 

Between 2015 and 2017, more than 30,000 Lagos residents were forcibly evicted from their homes, as many houses were demolished. In the space of the two years, women and children were disproportionately affected by such evictions, especially in waterfront communities.

Findings have also shown that about two-third of the city’s residents live in informal settlements that include unapproved developments, abandoned or partially completed buildings.

According to a real estate expert, Ezekiel Shojupe, a notice of six months must be given ahead of the expiration of the current rent but this is often neglected. “When there’s a need for a landlord to make use of force, a proper court order needs to be sought for that purpose.”

Electricity bills?

“Our landlady ordered us to vacate her house because we complained about the hike in the price of electricity bills,” said Abdulafeez Bushro, another Lagos resident who bitterly bemoaned how the state’s landlords are defying laws with impunity.

Her story reflected the irregular rent control, and the unprecedented hiking of the rent payments by the Lagos landlords. According to her, she was paying N80,000 when she firstly secured her apartment described as the “house facing a gutter” before the rent was increased to N120,000, then N150,000, and later to N180,000.

“When we complained to the landlady that we couldn’t continue to afford the sum of N12,000 being charged for electricity bills per person, we were mandated to vacate the house.”

Speaking about the challenges they face while trying to secure another house, Bushro said “We tried to secure another house around the area, but we were told to pay N1 million for a room self-contained. This is the reason we relocated to Ikorodu.”

Olushegun Shamson, a Lagos-based property consultant, explained that tenants cannot be evicted without a proper procedure laid down by law. 

He noted that if at all landlords want to evict their tenants, they must seek an order from a competent court of law which attracts expensive procedures. 

“There are procedures that govern people who own property in Lagos or Nigeria generally. Among them is that landlords cannot evict tenants without a proper procedure, and the procedure seeking the intervention of courts. But most of the time, dialogue is easier than going to court because the cost of going is very expensive,” he told CAMPUS REPORTERS. 

Legal position 

According to the Tenancy Law of Lagos State 2011, a landlord has the right to take possession of his property upon the lapse of the tenant agreement. However, this is subject to some certain conditions strictly laid down by the law.

For example, section 13 of the law provides that a tenant must be given a six-month notice if he is paying every year and a three months notice in the case of a tenant paying every six months.

Similarly, and unless the need arises, a landlord must receive an order of a court, authorising him to forcefully evict a tenant, and with the help of law enforcement agents. 

Abdulwasiu Mujeeb, a lawyer, identified the dispute between landlords and tenants as a complex matter in Lagos state. He stated that ten percent of people barely comply with the Tenancy Law.

Mr Mujeeb pointed to the fact that although some tenants are also guilty of the void, Lagos landlords usually exercise an arbitrary power while introducing rules that are outrageous to the interest of their tenants “since they feel like it is their property.”

The legal practitioner shared an instance of a landlord who always introduces a 100-percent increment whenever it’s time to receive a due rent payment.

“You will see a landlord introducing a double payment of what he received in the previous year. This will make tenants feel like this is an extortion. And when the landlord senses retaliation from the tenant, he would feel like the tenant is trying to dictate to him in his own house.”

Offering a solution to tackle the problem, Mr Mujeeb suggested a full implementation of the Tenancy Law by the government. He mentioned that the state created the Lagos State Rent Enforcement Agency, saddled with the responsibility of enforcing the provision of the law when the conflict began to rise in 2022. Therefore, he recommended effective management and operation of the agency.

“In addition to this agency, a task force should also be created as a rapid response to any situation arising from such measures. So that tenants and landlords may not need to linger on the issue for so long before it gets to be resolved,” the lawyer argued.

Government reacts

During an interview with our reporter, Ibironke Famakinwa, the Director of Public Affairs, Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority, gave an  account of the measures the state is taking to regulate the issue of tenants-landlords’ conflicts. 

“We have met with organisations who do business in this sector such as the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA). We have also met with the traditional rulers, the local government chairman in the 57 LGAs.

“We are currently on air in the form of jingles, interviews. We are also advocating  (for respect of tenancy law) through social media platforms including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, etc.”