The Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has urged the Lagos State Government to balance law enforcement with compassion in its ongoing demolition of structures at the Trade Fair Complex.

Obi’s appeal followed his visit to the site of the demolished ASPAMDA Market, where he criticised the destruction of traders’ plazas, describing it as a test of the government’s commitment to justice, equity, and human dignity.

He argued that while the government may have legal justifications, moral responsibility must not be neglected.

The Lagos State Government had, last week, defended the demolition, with the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Olumide Oluyinka, insisting that the exercise was purely technical and not targeted at any ethnic group, contrary to suggestions in some quarters.

In a statement shared on his X handle on Tuesday, Obi cautioned that the law should never be enforced in a manner that inflicts “undeserved pain” or destroys livelihoods, especially when less harmful alternatives exist.

“Those seeking to justify the demolitions at ASPAMDA Market and similar situations across Nigeria must be reminded that the law is not an end in itself; it is a means to ensure order, peace, and the protection of human dignity,” he wrote.

“When the law becomes an instrument to inflict pain — enforced without compassion or regard for human welfare — it ceases to serve justice,” Obi added.

He questioned whether the demolitions were the only viable option even if some traders lacked proper approvals. “If opportunities for regularisation truly existed, why were they not pursued? Does it serve justice to destroy billions of naira worth of investments and livelihoods when less destructive remedies could have sufficed?” he asked.

Drawing an analogy, Obi said: “It is like punishing a man who stole a bicycle with death instead of imprisonment — a sentence grossly disproportionate to the offence. That is what these demolitions represent: punishment that far outweighs the alleged infraction.”

He concluded: “My appeal is simple — governance must always balance law with compassion. 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. Power must always be exercised with empathy, for it is in how we treat the vulnerable that the true character of leadership is revealed.”