The ongoing struggle of the Maroko community highlights a long history of forced evictions in Lagos, dating back to colonial times, with residents petitioning the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2008 to seek justice.

Despite court rulings condemning forced evictions, the Lagos State government continues to ignore these legal orders, reflecting systemic issues in urban governance and residents' rights.

The trauma of eviction is passed down through generations, with communities like Maroko suffering the loss of homes, history, and social identity, often erased through renaming and destruction.

In the first half of 2025 alone, over 10,000 people have been evicted from waterfront areas in Lagos targeted for luxury housing developments, illustrating the ongoing trend of gentrification.

This wave of evictions is part of a broader pattern of urban gentrification, where low-income communities are displaced to make way for upscale developments.

The government justifies these demolitions as efforts to improve living conditions and reduce flooding, but in reality, they leave many homeless without adequate compensation or resettlement.

Evictions are often carried out with armed security support and are framed as necessary for urban development, despite the lack of planning for displaced communities' needs.

The 1990 eviction of over 300,000 residents from Maroko remains the largest in Nigeria’s history, marking a brutal chapter in Lagos’s urban development.

This eviction destroyed about 30 neighborhoods and is a stark reminder of the scale of displacement faced by low-income communities in Lagos.

A documentary titled 'Displaced – A City’s Scars' chronicles over a century of evictions in Lagos, revealing 91 eviction exercises from 1973 to 2024 that affected more than two million people.

The legacy of these evictions extends beyond physical displacement, erasing community histories and social ties, with only remnants like the Maroko Police Station remaining.

Lagos, with nearly 16 million residents, is experiencing rapid urban development and soaring luxury property prices, often at the expense of low-income residents, further deepening the housing crisis.