The workers who carried placards and chanted labour solidarity songs marched through the site where staff quarters, workshops and training schools were illegally demolished.
Workers of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) have issued a seven-day ultimatum to Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State to enter into negotiation with them over the illegal demolition of their offices, quarters and training schools and workshops, failure of which they will drag him and his administration to court.
The workers who carried placards and chanted labour solidarity songs marched through the site where staff quarters, workshops and training schools were illegally demolished.
Some of the placards read, "Governor Mbah, Urban development is not blood pressure and death" "Governor Mbah is demolition of Railway office in your manifesto" "Governor Mbah be a democrat leader and not an autocrat leader" "You must pay compensation to our demolished quarters" "Governor Mbah replicate our demolished workshop, training school, civil engineering yard etc" "Governor Mbah, we will not allow you send us out of work" "Governor Mbah development must be with human face".
Addressing journalists at the site of the demolished properties, the president general of the Nigerian Union of Railway Workers, Comrade Innocent Luka Ajiji, described the demolition as outrageous and unacceptable, adding that the government carried the exercise with impunity.
Ajiji said that the government didn't negotiate with the Railway Management or the workers unions.
He said, "We are here in Enugu today to protest over the demolition of our Properties by Enugu State government. We have properties all over Nigeria and if there is need for government into investment on our property there are do processes. What are those processes? - You pass through a process we have in our organisation that will permit you to have a document that can lead you to demolition or whatever you want to do in our land.
"So, but the Enugu State government on a fateful day on Sunday we were told that he came with bulldozers and started bulldozing our structures. Ten of our flats are involved in that demolition where people were living inside, we have a traffic training school that was demolished, we have a carriage and wagon workshop that was demolished, we equally have a whole training school of the Civil Engineering Department it was equally demolished, alongside ten three bedroom flats that railway workers and some retirees are living inside.
"We found this as totally unacceptable to us and that is why we came, these houses are on litigation because we won them (railway management) at the Industrial Court and of course the judgement said those houses should be sold to us. So Railway Management and Federal Government now took us to court, so you don't have right to come and termper with those properties until the determination of the court judgement. And so, Enugu State government didn't take all those things into cognizance and went ahead to termper with those properties that are already covered by litigation.
"So it is unacceptable to us and if you must termper with any of our structure there are procedures like I said and if that was followed at least it could have been accepted by us because in other states they demolish some of our houses and they were replicated. They demolished some of our offices they were replicated but we do not know the intention of Enugu State government. He has not come to talk to anybody from our management side, they have not gone to talk to anybody from the ministry of transport, he just came and started trying to occupy our property.
"That is unacceptable to us, that is why we came here to protest to tell the whole world that we shall fight for our rights. We will not allow Enugu State government to chase us out of work because when you start demolishing our offices federal government will see no need of keeping us and be paying us salary for doing nothing. So we will not accept him driving us out of work. That is why we are here."
On the claims by the State Government that it had memorandum of understanding with the railway property company over the demolished property and had actually paid compensation to the railway property company, the president said it was completely false, asking the government to show evidence and who they paid the money to.
"That is never true, our Properties are never given out to anybody on MoU. That is not true. Yes you must process documents and you will be given document for lease. We don't give our Properties on MoU, they are giving out on lease and you must make payment. It is only those properties that are not covered by litigation. For the houses have he spoken with us? It happened in Osun, it happened in Lagos and even Kano State.
"Osun State governor came to us we spoke and our houses were replicated because he knows the implication of what he was going to do, knowing fully that we have judgement over those properties. So, Enugu State government if he has MoU with Railway Property Company, that MoU does not cover our houses, that MoU does not cover our offices, and so if he has anything like that let him place on the table. Have he given you journalists, have you seen the MoU? That is not true."
On the purported compensation, he said "if they are compensating the Nigerian Railway that is their business. Let me tell you that the Railway Property Company is a subsidiary of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, and of course they manage our Properties. So if he is going to do compensation the houses you demolished whom are you discussing the compensation with? You must enter an agreement with us and we must agree before anything, before tampering with any property. So compensation or no compensation we are not aware. And he has no right to go and tamper with our facilities. That is why we will not accept. He should come and replicate all that he has demolished- ten three bedroom flats, our training school - civil engineering training school, carriage and wagon training workshop.
"Do you know what it takes to rebuild that workshop and so also the civil engineering training school. Of course Enugu State government has money we know but he should do the right thing at the right time."
Also speaking, President General Senior Staff Association NRC, Comrade Emeka Okeke equally condemned the demolition.
He said "The issues about MoU and compensations are all lies. We have made our inquiries and all our people said they don't know anything about the demolition. As far as they don't meet us we don't believe they meet anybody."
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