Dolphin Estate moves to evict squatters and return to masterplan

Residents of Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi, a high-brow Lagos community, are battling to restore the original master plan of the estate.

They feared that the existence of non-resident artisans, motor parks, roadside mechanics, vulcanisers and street traders, among others would not only continue to pose security risks, but was gradually tampering with the structural design of the estate.

The Dolphin Estate Residents Association, it was gathered, recently reached out to relevant government agencies to help weed out some of the squatters from the estate.

The major issue, according to some of the residents, is not only that their streets and walkways have been taken over, but the traders and artisans are not resident within the estate, thereby posing security risks.

The chairman, Dolphin Estate Association, Ibidapo Akande, explained that the action became necessary to ensure that the facilities of the estate were improved upon.

He said the weeding out of “unwanted elements” was central to achieving the two-year action plan of his administration, which included security and the environment.

He said, “Our major challenge is to ensure that the facilities of the estate are improved upon. We have decided that there was a need to stop the rot in the estate. To achieve this, we came up with a two-year action plan.”

Akande said all the residents were unanimous in the effort to put the estate back on track.

“There were a lot of squatters in the estate. Apart from the fact that the houses were in uniform, you wouldn’t believe you are in an estate if you had been here about seven months ago. We decided that it was time to weed out those squatters.

“After giving them several notices to quit without result, we had to get the support of relevant government agencies. It took us some time to get all those agencies on board to understand where we are going.”

But some of the artisans, under the aegis of Dolphin Estate Union Workers, accused the residents, especially Akande, of being insensitive to their plights.

One of them, Sunday Idowu, said the artisans had been in the estate for years without issues, adding that it came as a surprise to them when they were told to leave.

“This is a violation of our rights. As citizens of this country, we have the right to work and fend for ourselves. We intend to challenge the action in court,” he said.

However, a taxi driver, who identified himself simply as Adewole, said he had no problem with moving out of the estate as long as he was allowed to ply his trade around the vicinity.

This news originally appeared on Punch News