Covered
in a stream of sweat as he made for the narrow entrance leading outside the
block, Okoli Nwabueze (not real name), cursed and grumbled angrily. He was deep
in slumber by the time the fan in his room stopped rolling that afternoon and
so couldn’t make it out on time to enjoy cool, ‘precious’
breeze. Lacking proper ventilation, electricity supply was the only means to
keep the temperature within the room normal Last year, when he paid N140, 000
as rent and related charges for 12 months to move into Agboye ‘Estate’,
a gigantic structure with over 500 rooms stretching on about four plots of land
on Oduntan Street, Ketu, Lagos, this was not what he expected. The situation leaves
him deeply frustrated.
“The heat inside my
room is crazy,” he said, nodding his head in complete dejection. “There
is no ventilation and so whenever there’s power outage the place
becomes very hot. This was not what I expected when I paid for the house last
year. I never knew I was moving into a prison yard. I can’t
use generator or other household appliances even after paying so much as rent.
This is really crazy,” he fumed. Lamentations all the way Okoli is not the
only one burning with rage in this vast and hugely populated building –
the poor and extreme conditions of living is getting other tenants deeply
concerned, too. Apart from paying N6, 000 as monthly charges for a single room –
not more than twice the size of the space inside a commercial bus in Lagos –
occupants who agreed to speak with PUNCH after they were assured their
identities would be protected for fear of being victimised by the owner of the
house, Onamo Agboye, said they are forbidden from using power generators,
electric kettles, air conditioners or even host important social gatherings
like naming ceremonies or birthdays within the facility.
They
were assured of constant electricity supply when moving in but they soon found
out that the big generator set stationed at a section of the compound is not
meant to service their interest but the comfort of the landlord alone. To make
matters worse, the only entrance leading in and out of the compound closes at
11:00pm daily. Once the clock ticks, nobody goes in or out anymore, they
revealed. In case of an emergency, chaos is inevitable.
“There was this day I
was coming from FESTAC and I encountered traffic around Maryland, I didn’t
get to Ketu until about 11:30pm. The security men at the gate of the house did
not allow me to go in. I explained to them that I was new and that I didn’t
know about the time of the closure but they refused to listen to my plea. I
slept inside the church opposite the house that day,”
Lanre Adamolekun, another tenant told Saturday PUNCH.
The
regimented nature of the building – like a Nazi facility
– has left devastating consequences on some occasions.
Injuries and heartbreaks have come in different forms. Anthony Onyekwere told
PUNCH in a telephone conversation during the week: “My
wife almost died from pains after falling into labour around 2:30am. The
security men did not open the gate for us until two hours later because they
said their boss would be mad at them for opening the gate at such hour of the
night. They saw her condition, that she was dying but they refused to consider
her pains. By the time we got to the hospital, she had become too weak to push
by herself. She had to give birth through a caesarean section . That was the
moment I decided that the house was not a place to live,”
An entrance into one of the blocks in the ‘estate’
Chilling discoveries From afar, the massive building looks like a ship sailing
on the Atlantic with different national flags flying at the top with scores of
bulbs arranged at strategic spots.
During
a visit to the house during the week, PUNCH observed that the sanitary
conditions were in poor state, while hygiene was also a big issue. In most of the
blocks which are constructed only inches away from each other thus making free
flow of air almost impossible, at least 12 rooms shared a single toilet and
bathroom. On the average, two persons occupy each room, bringing the number of
users of a single toilet to 24. An official who works at the building confirmed
to their correspondent who posed as a potential tenant that there were
presently 370 tenants in the house. Meaning that on the average, there are 740
adults living in the compound. This is aside children and visitors who make
frequent stopovers to their loved ones. Unhygienic as this sounds, it is a
situation that has existed for a long time and shows no signs of improving
soon. Behind the compound is a vast swamp of stagnant sewage and dirt –
the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and other deadly insects that
combine to inflict maximum horror on the occupants. The section is also home to
snakes, scorpions and other
dangerous
crawling animals. Together, they make life for many of Agboye’s
low-income earning occupants hellish.
“We are slaves to
malaria and typhoid in this place,” Yemisi Adebambo,
said. “Ask people around especially parents with children and
let them tell you how much they spend on malaria and typhoid in a month. The
mosquitoes here are the deadliest I have seen in my life, no thanks to the
swamp at the back of the building; that is their breeding home. Even if you have
mosquito nets in your room, you must buy malaria medicine in a month, you can’t
escape it. If you are not even careful, you will meet snake or scorpion inside
your room. We have killed many of them in our block this year. Ask anybody,
they will confirm what I am saying,” the young mother of
four said.A new notice pasted on strategic points within the facility which
PUNCH correspondent stumbled upon, now also forbids tenants from accommodating a
visitor of any kind beyond seven days without the approval of the landlord.
According to the notice, such persons would be classified under the illegal tenant
category of the management’s laws.Others in this
category include: persons living in the room of a relation or friend who has
travelled even if their rent was yet to expire; those sharing a room without
the approval of the landlord, and also persons squatting in a room with a
sitting tenant. Those under this category who wish to escape
the
wrath of the management are urged to obtain a regularisation form at N5, 000
and return with four passport photographs to have their status changed.
Defaulters,
however, risk urgent ejection and other severe consequences, according to the
strong-
worded
notice.
The
landlord of the house, who described himself to Saturday PUNCH as a
philanthropist, said he established the place to help the masses and that if Nigerians
were like him, the country would have been a better place to live in.
“I am a
philanthropist; I do this to help the people. If others were like me, Nigeria
would have become a better place. I cannot say much for now but come back in two
days’ time (Wednesday, November 12, 2014) when I will give
you three hours to interview me. Your paper will sell so well,”
he said.But what the correspondent found at Agboye ‘estate’
is far from what you see in an environment established by a philanthropist.
Tenants
are ejected without prior notice while monthly rent is increased at will
without proper consultations with the occupants.
Tenants
cook by the entrance of their rooms as there are no kitchens while the
passageway in most of the eight blocks in the premises are enveloped in darkness
day and night except of course if there is electricity supply to light up the
bulbs. In the alternative, occupants light candles to illuminate the place.
The
monthly rent for a single room in this highly populated building –
N6, 000 – is one of the most expensive in mainland Lagos,
higher than in places like Yaba, Palmgrove and even Ikeja, the state capital. In
addition to the high rent, tenants pay additional N2, 000 for electricity and
other utility bills. New tenants who come on their own are made to pay a certain
amount to a woman who acts as in-house agent. Without ‘settling’
her, your tenancy documents won’t be signed. But for
those coming through an agent outside the place, they could pay as much as N140,
000 – about N34, 000 higher than the usual amount. In
additional, a new tenant is made to
perform
a mandatory ritual – present a specified number of malt drinks and a
bottle of wine to the management of the ‘estate.’Disturbing
as it sounds, the travails of many Agboye
‘estate’
residents, a school housing several professional institutes now converted to
blocks of residential apartments, is only a fraction of the accommodation
challenges many Lagos residents now face.
Confronted
with outrageous rents and all sorts of living conditions by house owners, many
of the city’s low-income earning families and individuals are forced
to accept cheap alternatives that offer no succour in the real sense. Rather,
their troubles have been compounded in many of these places, with their rights
grossly abused by greedy house owners who ‘lord’
over their lives in every form.
Culled
from PumchNG
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