Amid growing concerns over the wave of demolitions of completed houses and estates across the country, the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) has urged the government to tackle the root causes of the problem rather than wasting scarce resources on large-scale demolitions.

Executive Director of HDAN, Festus Adebayo, said negligence and complicity on the part of government officials lie at the heart of the crisis.

He questioned why authorities allowed such buildings to spring up over the years without intervention, only to demolish them after completion.

“Where was the government when approvals were granted by its staff and when these structures were being constructed? Why weren’t they stopped earlier? Instead, the government waited until buildings were completed, painted, and occupied before moving in with bulldozers. This is ridiculous,” Adebayo said.

He described the demolitions as a colossal economic waste, stressing that they inflict hardship on innocent homeowners while failing to confront the corruption that enabled the illegal constructions in the first place.

According to him, accountability must not stop at developers alone. “Demolition is the punishment for the developer, but the criminal officers who aided the construction must also go down. Until government officers who looked the other way are held publicly accountable, whether by outright dismissal or demotion, these demolitions will never end. Right now, the punishment falls only on developers, which makes the exercise one-sided and ineffective.”

Adebayo maintained that holding complicit officials responsible would serve as a deterrent to others and reduce future infractions.

He reiterated that corruption within government approval systems fuels most of the illegal structures later targeted for demolition, warning that unless this is addressed, the cycle will persist.