Stephanie Hegarty -BBC
At about 09:15 local time, Lagos State Government officials and police came to the strip mall of small businesses on Rumens Road, Ikoyi with bulldozers and cranes and told business owners they were going to demolish the strip.
Cafe where I had breakfast this morning just torn down by Lagos state gov. Owners had no warning. 10min to get out!! pic.twitter.com/LDK7b6PHLo
— Steph Hegarty (@stephhegarty) September 1, 2016
The mall had two cafes, a small convenience store, a vegetable shop, a pharmacy, a bar and a dance studio.
The owner of Nuli Juice, a juice and health food company said staff were running around in the rain trying to pull fittings from the walls and throwing furniture out of the door.
They said the demolition team told them they had a directive from the Lagos state governor to destroy the premises and that the landlord had been given notice of the demolition in March.
But business owner Ada Osakwe who opened Nuli six weeks ago, only started doing up her shop in May.
None of the business owners have succeeded in contacting the landlord yet. And Lagos State government has yet to comment.