U.N. expert questions legality of "brutal" mass evictions in Nigeria
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GENEVA/LAGOS- A U.N. expert asked Nigeria on Thursday for urgent information about a forced eviction of thousands of people from makeshift homes in Lagos, although the state government denied reports of brutality and possible breaches of human rights laws.
Residents and a rights group said 30,000 people were forced a week ago from bamboo homes built illegally in the city's Lekki neighbourhood - a prime site for luxury apartments - in defiance of a court order to wait.
Campaigners and residents told a Reuters reporter at the scene that the demolition had happened after fighting between locals and people from Benin, a nation just west of Lagos.
But in a statement issued late on Thursday, Lagos state government said the shanty town was destroyed by fires set during violence between ethnic groups within the community.
