Enugu State government under the administration of Governor Mbah has commenced the demolition of houses and businesses of residents who were mainly people who came to Enugu to invest in real estate.
Mrs Ngozi Dede is one of the hundreds of residents of Nchatancha Nike community in the Enugu East local government area of Enugu State whose properties worth billions of naira in investment were destroyed by Governor Peter Mbah-led state government.
Enugu State government under the administration of Governor Mbah has commenced the demolition of houses and businesses of residents who were mainly people who came to Enugu to invest in real estate.
Recently, SaharaReporters reported how over 200 houses including multi-million-naira hotels were demolished in Obeagu Awkunanaw and Amechi Awkunanaw by the administration. The government branded the demolished properties as kidnappers' dens, which some residents have described as an excuse to justify the demolition.
However, the state government has continued to demolish properties, businesses, and residential houses of hundreds of residents in the Nchatancha Nike community. Most of these residents had acquired or built their properties since 2012 under the former administration of Governor Sullivan Chime.
Mrs Dede, born in Enugu and married to someone from Abia State, had her poultry and fish farm with 18,000 birds and 5,000 fish destroyed and all the birds and fish killed despite not being issued eviction notice. Her property was also not marked for demolition.
Speaking to SaharaReporters in an interview at the scene of the demolition of a multi-million-naira farm, Mrs Dede who is currently battling to save the life of her husband at a private hospital in the state, described the destruction as bad, especially by the same government that had been wooing investors to invest in Enugu.
She said she was surprised that such a government could willfully destroy a multi-million-naira investment that employed dozens of people in the state without giving notice.
The depressed Mrs Dede narrated: "I learnt that they (the government) are demolishing some places. Nobody told me that my farm was marked, even the people working here said that the farm was not marked or issued eviction notices. I acquired and built this farm legally. I pay taxes in millions to the government.
"My workers and other neighbours showed me an area that was marked with even beacons. All of a sudden, I was called that one man, a commissioner came and said that my farm should be included. My workers were shouting that this area was not marked but the bulldozer went in and started demolishing the farm. No notice to vacate was issued. So as they were demolishing, I came in and I saw them and I tried to stop them. I pleaded that they should give me one day to pack the birds but they refused and demolished everything.
"I have 10,000 hens laying eggs. I collect 300 crates of eggs every day from this farm. I have 6,000 pullets that I bought that are about three to four months old; I have 2,000 broilers that I was supposed to sell this Easter, 5,000 grown-up fish ponds and 2,000 fingerlings all of which were damaged. I felt so bad that such a thing could be happening in Nigeria today. The government is there for the people and not the other way around.”
"I know when development is coming in you tell people, you give notice. People like me did not collect any notice, I didn't even know that they were doing anything. I have not been around and I have been calling my farm and I heard that they are working at St David Road. I didn't know they had included this on my farm," she lamented.
She said, "I bought the land in 2017 and completed the farm in September 2017. Meanwhile, they did not mark here. When you go to the front, you will see where they put beacons and red ribbons. Even yesterday while I was here, I met some people, I even saw the chairman of Capital Territory and told him that I heard that my farm was not marked and no eviction notice was issued to my farm, then why the demolition, he told me "Madam, it is from the authority".
"Even a woman that is working for me with the husband, she was sleeping with her baby at the boys' quarter when they started the demolition. She didn't know that anything was happening. It was the people who were shouting before she came out with her baby otherwise they would have killed the woman and the baby in their shared wickedness. So I'm so surprised to see this kind of wickedness because they didn't give me any notice. If they had given me notice at least I would have saved the lives of the birds if not for any other thing."
She described the demolition as very bad, adding "We all know about development, if the government comes and says it needs an area, they should give people notice and give time. When the people do not comply, you can go ahead and do whatever you want to do. Everybody in Nigeria knows the hardship in the country. I am just controlling myself; I couldn't even sleep last night. I am just controlling my temper, I don't even know what to say."
Regarding the value of what she lost, she said, "Like now when you have a day old chicken, ask anybody, it is N950 let alone the birds that are laying eggs for a year now. I can't even quantify the millions of naira I lost here off-hand because having 10,000 birds, anybody that is in the farming business will tell you how much. Just two weeks ago, I made feeds here that cost N3 million, just for my layers, not even for the broilers. The new pullets I bought at N600 each, and I had 6,000 of them. I have been feeding them for three months now. I can't even quantify what I lost here.”
Speaking, Mr Oha Uchenna Samson, whose property was viciously damaged said his wife with their two-month-old baby narrowly escaped death as she was sleeping when the bulldozer started the demolition.
SaharaReporters reports that no pin was removed in the massive property that has a piggery.
"There's nothing like notice, they dragged my wife with our newborn baby out of my house and demolished everything, including the baby's belongings. My house was built in 2013 and the government did not give me any eviction notice. I am not opposing any development but I think there's a process to take over somebody's property.
"I have a property that they marked for demolition and I religiously picked my things out of the property. Governor Peter Mbah ruined my life and that of my entire family with the innocent baby that was born barely two months ago because I am not from Enugu State. Where do I start from? This is the height of evil. My house was not marked for demolition, and there was no eviction notice why would the state government led by the commissioner for lands order the demolition of the house while the family was inside, my piggery with 45 grown-up pigs killed?
"I was busy helping people pack out their things in the areas where the government marked when I was called to come that they were demolishing by house. My wife with the new baby knelt begging at least to remove our things but the Commissioner and Director of Capital Territory used police and soldiers to push them down. They demolished the house with all our properties, including the baby's wears. Nothing, I mean nothing was removed from the house. They captured the people they marked their property for demolition but I was not."
Asked when he bought the land, he said, "I bought this land in January 2012 and developed in 2013 and now they have demolished everything including my farm, and killed over 45 pigs. There's no information, our houses were not marked and we were not issued an eviction notice. The government has put beacons in the areas it said it had acquired from the community why then demolish my house? This is injustice.
"Nobody carries land around. I bought the land from the family that owns it legitimately. This place is not part of what the government acquired from the community. If you want to take over my property, why not notify me? Where do you want me to go with my children and newborn baby? I know I have no power of my own but there's God. If what they have done is good, let those who authorised it go free but if there's an injustice, let God who sees everything reward them according to their deeds."
Meanwhile, the state government on February 19 claimed that no house was demolished, blaming "land grabbers for creating problems."
A statement from the governor's office faulted claims of demolitions and forceful ejections of residents of Nchatancha Nike by the ongoing construction of New Enugu City, a smart city which was flagged off by Governor Mbah in October.
It blamed a series of protests against the demolition on land grabbers in the community, who sell portions of the already acquired and gazetted lands to unsuspected buyers, saying that some culprits were already in custody.
It said that although affected communities were already served a notice years ago when the land acquisitions began by previous administrations, Mbah’s administration was approaching the mega project with a human face by ensuring that compensations and proper relocations were done before any demolition.
The Secretary to the Enugu State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, made the clarifications during a site visit to Nchatancha Nike where a bulldozer was attacked. He vowed that the government would not be deterred from actualising the first phase of the New City in 24 months as already agreed with the China Communication Construction Company, CCCC, in October.
He said that the governor, who already had a series of conversations and buy-in of the communities ahead and in the course of the project had ordered the contractors to begin a 24-hour construction work.
He said, “What we have discovered was that a few of community members, in noticing how bullish the governor is in building this New Enugu City, embarked on selling the lands to unsuspecting individuals, knowing that those buyers, not them, will now have to contend with the government.”
“But I think we need to step back and answer the questions on when this process started. The first acquisition process started long before this government came," he said but he didn't disclose the date and year.
He continued, "People have been served the notice many years ago that there would be a day like this when a government would decide that it is now time to actualise the promise to build a new city.
“But in doing that, what the governor decided would happen first is to clear the first 1,000 hectares. There are no homes here, as you can see. A few of the marked items you saw at the entrance belong to federal institutions.
“To make sure that no one was left without proper compensation, the governor constituted the Inter-Ministerial Committee, which I chair. We have also put out an announcement. So far, nobody has submitted anything because we are not even at that stage of demolishing anything yet. If you look around, all you see are farmlands. There is no building here, just a bush."