The United Nations has called on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to put a halt to forced evictions in Nigeria.

Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing who stated this following her 10-day visit to the country noted that highly-placed and influential citizens were ejecting poorer Nigerians from their homes.

She said: “Successive Governments have allowed economic inequality in Nigeria to reach extreme levels, a fact that is clearly evident in the housing sector.

“Meanwhile, newly built luxury dwellings are springing up throughout cities, made possible often through the forced eviction of poor communities.”

While insisting that these new dwellings do not fulfill any housing need since many remained vacant and ‘acting as vessels for money laundering or investment’, Farha noted that 7 in 10 Nigerians in towns and cities now live in inhumane settlements.

Among her other findings which are to be presented in full to the Human Rights Council in March 2020, Farha highlighted widespread discrimination against vulnerable minorities by landlords.