The state government recently issued a 72-hour demolition notice to shop owners to vacate the market, stating that it was planning to move a modern transport terminal to the area.
Some groups have filed a lawsuit against the Enugu State government at the state High Court in Nsukka over the planned invasion and demolition of shops of the over 10,000 traders in Ogige Market, Nsukka.
The state government recently issued a 72-hour demolition notice to shop owners to vacate the market, stating that it was planning to move a modern transport terminal to the area.
In the suit jointly instituted on Friday, May 24, 2024, by the law hub development and advocacy centre, Abuja and the Ositadinma Okoro Empowerment Foundation on behalf of the traders, they want the court to compel the state government to pay N50 billion as compensation to the traders.
The suit titled “manifest gross violation of the fundamental rights and the planned invasion and demolition of shops of over 10,000 traders of Ogige Market, Nsukka," has the state governor, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah and the Attorney General of the state as respondents.
The Applicants seek a declaration “that the act of the Respondents in giving traders of Ogige Market Nsukka, 72 hours notice to vacate their properties and shops at the Ogige Market Nsukka, on the 22nd day of May 2024, and the purported plan to use force to remove the traders forcefully and throw them out of their shops and properties they built on the market land, constitutes a flagrant violation of traders fundamental rights to own movable and immovable properties guaranteed under Sections 43 & 44(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and Articles 22 and 23, of the African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights, (Ratification and Enforcement Act) Cap. A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and is therefore illegal, unconstitutional, null and void”.
They also seek an order of perpetual injunction “restraining the Respondents, whether by themselves, their agents, privies or otherwise howsoever from further harassing, intimidating, trailing, scaring away the traders of Ogige Market Nsukka, from their shops, and properties, arresting or detaining them upon the same facts constituting the complaints enumerated in this application or in any other manner infringing on the applicants’ fundamental rights.
"N50 Billion Naira being exemplary, punitive, aggravated, special and general damages against the Respondents, for their infringement of traders of Ogige market Nsukka, constitutional and fundamental rights”.
They noted that “over 10,000 traders in the market have invested over ten (10) billion naira in the market since the inception of the market over 50 years ago.
"On 22nd May 2024, agents of the Respondents came to the market and gave the traders 72 hours to vacate the market.
"In a reminisce of the military era, the agents of Enugu state government wrote on walls in the market the notice that they should vacate the market within 72 hours, vacate and relocate from the market. The picture of such notices written on wall of shops in the market are jointly exhibited as ‘Exhibit A’.
"The properties of the traders are still locked up in their shops in the market. The traders of the market have been trading peacefully in the market for over 50 years, before the respondents just woke up and gave them 72 hours notice to vacate the market.
"That if the respondents are not urgently restrained, they will demolish the traders’ shops and properties.”
In the suit, the Applicants’ lawyer Olu Omotayo Esq. leading two other lawyers J.E. Akubue Esq. and Desmond Kakaan Esq. urged the court to determine some issues most importantly among which is: “Whether the act of the Respondents in giving traders of Ogige Market Nsukka 72 hours’ notice to vacate their properties and shops at Ogige Market Nsukka, on the 22nd day of May 2024, and the purported plan to use force to remove the traders forcefully and throw them out of their shops and properties they built on the market land, does not constitute a flagrant violation of traders fundamental rights to privacy and their homes guaranteed under Sections 43 & 44(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999(as amended) and Articles 22 and 23, of the African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights, (Ratification and Enforcement Act) Cap. A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004”.