Protest rocks AIT community over proposed cemetery project

LAGOS — A massive protest has rocked the AIT/Amikanle community in Alagbado, Lagos, where angry residents have taken to the streets to reject a proposed government cemetery, citing deep spiritual fears and the safety of their pregnant women and children.

The demonstration, which brought the quiet community to a standstill, took a dramatic turn when residents insisted that siting a “land of the dead” in a residential zone would turn their neighborhood into a house of horror.

The protesters, comprising mostly women and youths, expressed genuine fear that the presence of fresh graves would spiritually endanger their vulnerable ones.

A community spokesperson lamented that the psychological trauma of living next to a cemetery would trap their families indoors.

“If this cemetery is built, our pregnant women won’t be able to walk freely anymore. Culturally and spiritually, it is not right for a woman carrying a baby to be walking past fresh corpses every day. We won’t accept it!”

In a twist that has set social media buzzing, some female residents revealed that the cemetery project is threatening the peace of their homes. They claimed that their husbands, who often return late from work due to Lagos traffic, would be terrified to walk through the community at night.

“Our husbands come home late sometimes, and they have told us they will be scared too,” one resident shouted. “You can’t expect a man to jump off a bus at 10 PM and walk past a graveyard alone. It is not safe, physically or spiritually. We don’t want ghosts as neighbors!”

Parents also raised the alarm that they would no longer be able to send their children on errands, fearing the eerie atmosphere of a burial ground. “How can I send my 10-year-old to buy something when he has to pass a place where they are burying dead bodies? It will traumatize our children,” another protester added.

The community is calling on the Lagos State Government to urgently relocate the project to a non-residential area, insisting that AIT/Amikanle needs development like schools and hospitals, not a resting place for the dead.