Many homes were brought down by the Lagos State taskforce.

The Lagos State House of Assembly has ordered the State Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit known as Taskforce to stop the demolition of houses in Kosofe Local Government Area of the state.

The Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, has also set up a five-member ad-hoc committee consisting of Akinsanya Nureni, Adewale Temitope, Sanni Okanlawon, Femi Saheed and Aro Moshood to investigate the matter and report to the House in two weeks.

The information officer of the House, Bisola Branco-Adekoya, made this known in a statement on Thursday.

Several women and children were rendered homeless after hooded task force officials invaded the Oworoshoki in the Kosofe area, burnt houses and demolished others, The Punch newspaper reported.

Investigation

The speaker's decision followed a 'Matter of Urgent Public Importance' raised by Sanni Okanlawon, who told his colleagues that some police officers and a team from the Ministry of Environment stormed the area and demolished residential buildings.

He said the demolition squad had claimed that only shanties would be pulled down. He lamented that the team had gone beyond the shanties and demolished a lot of other buildings.

Mr Okanlawon said the demolition affected Omolabake, Gandonu and Coker Estate in the local government area and that over 300 people have lost their buildings, properties and sources of livelihood.

According to him, all efforts to speak to the taskforce and officials of the ministry proved abortive.

He implored the House to constitute an ad hoc committee to investigate the matter.

Subsequently, Mr Obasa directed the clerk, Olalekan Onafeko, to write a letter to the taskforce chairperson Shola Jejeloye and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Environment to stop the demolition immediately pending when the House would look into the matter.