Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised the recent demolitions at Aspamda Market in Lagos, describing them as acts that undermine justice and compassion in governance.
In a statement titled “Lagos Demolitions: Law, Justice, and Compassion”, Obi said he recently visited the demolished market alongside a group of concerned leaders. He noted that reactions following the visit suggest “extraneous variables” were influencing Nigerians’ compassion toward one another.
Recalling a personal experience from the 1990s in the United Kingdom, Obi said that when squatters occupied his property at 66 Donnington Road, NW10, his lawyer advised him to take legal action rather than evict them by force. According to him, it would have been “unthinkable for the state to simply wake up one morning and demolish people’s houses,” particularly when those properties were not linked to crime or needed for public use.
Obi argued that law should not be an end in itself but a tool to promote order, peace, and the protection of human dignity. He warned that when enforcement lacks compassion, it ceases to serve justice.
“Even if some of the affected traders failed to obtain proper approvals, was demolition the only option?” he asked. “Does it truly serve justice to destroy billions of naira worth of investments and livelihoods when less destructive remedies could have sufficed?”
He likened the demolitions to “punishing a man who stole a bicycle with death instead of imprisonment,” describing them as disproportionate and unjust.
Obi appealed to governments at all levels to balance legality with humanity, stressing that being legally right does not excuse moral failure. “Justice, to be just, must be tempered with mercy,” he said, adding that true leadership is reflected in how the vulnerable are treated.
He concluded by calling the demolitions “a test of our collective humanity” and reiterated his vision that “a new Nigeria is possible.”
