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Claim: A Facebook user, Chinasa Nwosu, claimed that the Lagos state government is preparing to demolish over 170 estates in the state.
Verdict: Misleading! DUBAWA’s findings showed that the Lagos state government had only called for the surveyors of the listed estates to update the required documents within a specific timeline.
Full Text
With the growing number of social media users, false information continues to spread rapidly, despite ongoing efforts by fact-checking agencies to curb the trend.
Recently, a user, Chinasa Nwosu, made a post on Facebook wherein he claimed the Lagos government had allegedly earmarked 176 estates in the state for demolition.
The user listed the affected estates to include Adron Homes, Elerangbe; Achor Homes, Elephane; Lekki County Homes, Ikota; Paragon Terraces, Abraham Adesanya, Ajah; Prime Water View Estate, Lekki Phase I; Westwood Park Estate, Phase I; London Park Phase II, Eleko; Aina Gold Estate, Okun-Folu; Diamond Estate, Eputu; Prime Water View Garden, Ikate Elegushi; and Royal View Estate, Ikota.
Others are Havilah Villas – Orchid Road, Lekki; Urban Shelter Estate, Ibeju-Lekki; Westwood Park Estate, Phase I, Ajah; Beach Front Garden, Akodo; Cedarwood Boulevard Estate, Okun-Ajah; Courtland Villas, Sangotedo; Shelter Estate, Eleko, and Delight Estate and Resort, Off Epe-Itoikin Road.
In the post, Nwosu urged all Igbos who own property in the listed estates to prepare to move out to another location. The user also alleged that the planned demolition was to address drainage issues, prevent flooding, and reclaim areas that estate developers had illegally taken.
A scan of the comments on the post revealed that some users agreed, claiming the Lagos state government does not support South-Easterners purchasing property in the state.
However, others argued that the number of estates mentioned was too high for any state government to earmark for demolition, adding that such action would affect many people.
Given the potential of such a post to create fear for residents of these estates and deepen ethnic division in the state, DUBAWA fact-checked it to ascertain its veracity.
Verification
On Aug 3, 2025, the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development issued a statement identifying a long list of illegal estate developments due to a lack of planning approval.
The housing estates, predominantly located in the Eti-Osa, Ajah, Ibeju-Lekki, and Epe axis, were given a 21-day ultimatum to process their documentation or face sanctions.
Oluwole Sotire, Permanent Secretary of the Office of Physical Planning, explained that the affected estates undermined Lagos’s sustainable development goals and violated the guiding principles of the T.H.E.M.E.S+ Agenda by operating without approved layouts.
T.H.E.M.E.S is an acronym for the Lagos government’s six strategic development agendas: Traffic Management and Transportation, Health and Environment, Education and Technology, Making Lagos a 21st-century Economy, Entertainment and Tourism, and Security and Governance.
Under the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Regulation of 2019, anyone intending to conduct any development on any land within the state must apply to the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority to grant a Planning Permit for such development.
Sotire explained that the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development also handles the processing of layout approvals.
Meanwhile, some stakeholders condemned the government for using the word ‘illegal’ in describing the estates, which could affect people’s investments, and highlighted better ways the government could have categorised the estates in terms of compliance.
However, according to Oluyinka Olumide, Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, some of the estates have only 50 to 70 per cent approvals. But others either have no approvals at all or are being built on land designated for agriculture, industry, and other purposes.
Olumide had earlier explained that layout approval allows for the proper arrangement of the estate to accommodate necessary services and infrastructure, while planning permits address planning requirements on individual plots within the estate.
Based on the available information, the Lagos state government merely urged developers to obtain the required layout approvals and process their documentation. The state did not explicitly mention that the estates listed were earmarked for demolition, as the Facebook user claimed.
Conclusion
The claim that the Lagos state government had marked 176 estates for demolition is misleading. The government had only urged developers to acquire the land ownership documents.
