Flooding: Ikoyi residents urge Sanwo-Olu to stop illegal dredgers

Concerned residents of Ikoyi have called on the state government to rescue them from being submerged by the sea as land speculators dredge and indiscriminately sand-fill the lagoon.
The situation will aggravate the already perennial flooding in some neighbourhoods in the area, they argued.
Speaking exclusively to our reporter, the Coalition of Concerned Citizens of Lekki, Ikoyi and Victoria Island, called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration to rescue them from being submerged by the lagoon due to the illicit activities of land speculators.
Olusegun Ladega, an architect, and representative of the group, exposed the distortion of the Lekki drainage regional master plan stressing that it was “caused by the indiscriminate sand-filling of natural waterways.”
According to him, the sand-filling of Lagos lagoons and oceans is causing coastal erosion, forcing water back to land.
The dredging activities along the lagoon shoreline are usually carried out at night, thus leading to the encroachment of the waterfronts of some Ikoyi residents and the gradual submerging of their neighbourhoods beneath the sea.