A jungle in the city: Story of a 500-room house where tenants live as prisoners

 Covered in a stream of sweat as he made for the narrow entrance leading outside the block, Okoli Nwabueze (not real name), cursed and grumbled angrily. He was deep in slumber by the time the fan in his room stopped rolling that afternoon and so couldn’t make it out on time to enjoy cool, ‘precious’ breeze. Lacking proper ventilation, electricity supply was the only means to keep the temperature within the room normal. Last year, when he paid N140, 000 as rent and related charges for 12 months to move into Agboye ‘Estate’, a gigantic structure with over 500 rooms stretching on about four plots of land on Oduntan Street, Ketu, Lagos, this was not what he expected.

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