Voices from Under the Bridge – Displaced Iddo Residents Cry for Help

In the heart of Lagos, beneath the now-evacuated Iddo Bridge, a silent crisis brews. Traders and residents, recently uprooted by a government demolition exercise citing safety concerns, are pleading for urgent intervention.

Many of the displaced claim they paid up to N300,000 annually to unofficial landlords to secure spaces under the bridge. Now, with just a seven-day eviction notice, they’ve lost not only shelter but also their source of income.

“We are not criminals. We paid rent like every other Lagosian,” one of the affected residents told PUNCH. “Now, we have nowhere to go and nothing to fall back on.”

The demolition may have cleared the area, but it has left in its wake a wave of uncertainty, despair, and unanswered questions about the fate of those who once called it home.