The occupant of the house, Mrs. Roseline Okoye, who confirmed the demolition exercise to SaharaReporters, said the soldiers who oversaw the demolition did not allow her to pack her belongings.
The Nigerian Army on Friday demolished a property belonging to one Citizen Nana Ogbodo after claiming it was acquired during the 1967-1970 civil war despite the pendency of the matter in court.
The occupant of the house, Mrs. Roseline Okoye, who confirmed the demolition exercise to SaharaReporters, said the soldiers who oversaw the demolition did not allow her to pack her belongings.
SaharaReporters reported on Thursday that some soldiers of the Nigerian Army had locked out schoolchildren and occupants of the property.
SaharaReporters reported on Wednesday that the Nigerian Army was planning to confiscate the property belonging to Mr Ogbodo, claiming that the military acquired it during the Nigerian-Biafra civil war as a booty.
On Thursday night, Mrs Okoye who had been locked outside the house along with her kids since Wednesday cried out to Nigerians for help. She said the army had continued to deny them access to the house and threatened to eliminate them if they moved near the gate.
Lamenting, she said she and her children had worn the same clothes since Wednesday and had not had baths.
She pleaded for more time to secure another accommodation to move to.
She said: "I have been outside with my children since Wednesday afternoon. My children had gone to school and I went to work when the soldiers came and locked the house. My children are still wearing their school uniform.
"To be honest we have not taken our bath. I don't know anywhere to go. I didn’t know that the property was in dispute when I moved in. I am pleading with them to give me some time to find another house.
"You can't lock me and my little kids out and subject these little kids to such inhumane treatment based on a directive given by authorities that claim to respect human rights.
“I’m not contending the ownership of the house; let them give me a little time to secure another accommodation and pack out. That is what I am asking for. The soldiers stationed at the property told me that it was an order from the above."
A civic group, Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN), had written the Minister of Defence, Muhammed Badaru, appealing for his intervention.
CRRAN appealed in a petition to the minister on behalf of Ogbodo, which was copied to the Chief of Army Staff Nigerian Army, Lt Gen Taoreed Lagbaja, and the General Officer Commanding, 82 Division Nigerian Army in Enugu.
The petition dated May 6, 2024, is titled ‘Appeal for justice and urgent Intervention; Re: Threat to forcefully and unlawfully take over a citizen’s property by the Army Authorities of the 82, Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu.’
Signed by the President of the organisation, Olu Omotayo Esq, the group explained that the army authorities had not shown any title document indicating that the property in question belonged to the military but only that the property was one of the properties acquired by the army during the civil war.
In the petition, the group explained that the army authorities at the 82 Division, in defiance of the letter from the office of the Chief of Army Staff that the matter was under investigation by his office, decided to take the law into its hands and supplant the rule of law.
However, reacting to the report in a statement issued on Thursday, the Nigerian Army, through its Director, Public Relations, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu, insisted that the property belongs to the army without providing any evidence.
Titled "Nigerian Army Did Not Confiscate Property Of Enugu Resident, It Rightfully Belongs To The NA," Nwachukwu stated that the property "is the NA property" adding that it was last occupied by Col Emeka Ugwuoke rtd while he was in service.
The army said an allegation that the 82 Division, in defiance of a letter from the Office of the Chief of Army Staff, decided to take the law into its hands and supplant the rule of law, was unfounded and intended to tarnish its image.
Nwachukwu said, "The senior officer who was allocated the quarter during his service was removed therefrom by the NA in April 2023, when he tried to convert the quarter to his private property after his retirement.
“Surprisingly, it is on one corner of the property from where the NA ejected the retired senior officer that the trespassers invaded."
Nwachukwu insisted that the NA is a disciplined institution that "respects human rights and the rule of law," while urging the public to disregard the "narrative that suggests the NA is acting unlawfully or without respect for due process."