Former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has called on the Lagos State government to approach its ongoing demolition of structures with compassion, saying that being “legally correct” does not excuse being “morally wrong.”
Obi made the appeal in a statement on Tuesday via his X handle, days after visiting the site of the demolished ASPAMDA Market at the Trade Fair Complex. He described the destruction of traders’ plazas as a test of the state’s commitment to justice, compassion, and human dignity.
“The law must never be wielded in a way that inflicts undeserved pain or destroys livelihoods when less destructive remedies exist,” he said, arguing that the exercise should have been handled with greater empathy.
He recalled a personal experience abroad to stress that governments should pursue lawful and humane processes rather than “waking up one morning to demolish homes or businesses.”
Obi questioned whether demolition was the only available option, even if the affected traders lacked proper approvals. “Does it truly serve justice to destroy billions of naira worth of investments and livelihoods when less destructive remedies could have sufficed?” he asked.
He likened the demolitions to punishing a minor offence with an extreme penalty. “It is like punishing a man who stole a bicycle with death instead of imprisonment – a sentence grossly disproportionate to the offence,” he said.
However, Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, in a statement issued last Wednesday, dismissed Obi’s criticism as “emotional theatrics.” He maintained that the demolition was constitutional and that affected traders had been given ample opportunity to regularise their papers during a general amnesty declared by the government last year, which was extended several times.
Obi, however, maintained that true justice must be “tempered with mercy.”
“A government should not pride itself on being legally correct if, in the process, it becomes morally wrong. Justice, to be just, must be tempered with mercy,” he said. “Power must always be exercised with empathy – for it is in how we treat the vulnerable that the true character of leadership is revealed.”