Residents and owners of over 200 houses worth billions of naira recently demolished by the Enugu State government on January 19, 2024, have lamented their losses and called for adequate compensation.
The houses were demolished in Uzamagu village in the Enugu South local government area of the state, southeast Nigeria.
The property owners and investors described the demolition exercise carried out by the same government persuading investors to invest in the state as “preposterous” and an "aberration".
Checks by SaharaReporters revealed that parts of Centenary City are owned by the Uzamagu village, which hosts some families including Amauzam Agu and Amaegbu.
For many years now, at Uzamagu, a lot of families have settled and have been living in the Agu (farm settlement) without government attention. They relied on self-help to provide basic amenities for themselves, until recently they started leasing out some portions of their land to investors to assist in the development of the community.
The people of the Umazagu village and indeed Obeagu Awkunanaw were hopeful that the investment coming into the community would soon put the community on the map of one the developed communities in the state.
But on January 19, officials of the Enugu State government through the State Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) invaded the community and levelled hundreds of buildings. Some of the buildings belonged to the members of the community and some were owned by investors who purchased the land from the community, some community leaders told SaharaReporters.
One Mr Anthony, a native of the community and an engineer with the Hands of God Construction Company, whose 21 bungalows worth millions of naira were demolished, described the action of the government as tyrannical.
He said that it negates the principles of democracy which Nigeria “claims to practise”.
He said, "The property belongs to my brother and I am the person handling the construction works. We have all the papers and permits from the government.
“We have a certificate of occupancy and, a building permit from the ECTDA and we paid all prescribed fees to the government. It defies logic for the same government to turn around to order the destruction of our properties without notification or any court order.
"They did not even demolish perimeter fence; they did not even demolish one house or two but entire 21 bungalows. This is incredible. I was showing them the documents of the property and approvals but what did they do, ignored it only for the government to turn around to declare that we have no permit to build.”
He said, "The painful part of this whole thing was that we were all knelt to beg these people that they shouldn't demolish this property and let us sort it out if there is a problem somewhere but they refused.
“Even up to this very moment I am still in shock. I am not happy at all and my brother who has this investment is not happy as well. We don't even know how to go about this. We have invested hundreds of millions in this property that has now been destroyed.”
"We are demanding that they pay us for all the damages. How can you be calling on people to come to invest in the state and at the same time you are busy demolishing existing investments made by people? What makes you think the measure you applied to the existing investment will not be extended to new investors?" Anthony asked.
In an exclusive interview with Chief Christopher Egbo, the traditional Prime Minister of Obeagu Awkunanaw and Chairman of Uzamagu Development Union, the community leader vowed that the community would use everything legally available to get a redress.
Egbo explained that the demolitions were carried out without any court order or notification whatsoever as to why the demolition took place in the first place.
He said, "A few days ago, the ECTDA swooped into our community and began to demolish properties on lands we have sold to investors without any reason adduced for the demolition. The land is not government land. It is an ancestry property of the Uzamagu people handed over to us by our forefathers. There is never a time the government acquired the property from us.
"We only knew that in 1980 Jim Nwobodo as former Governor of Old Anambra State made an attempt to acquire some place for Anambra State University of Science and Technology but did not finalise the process of acquisition before he left office in 1983. So, what we are saying is that the properties of those that bought land from us that were destroyed, the owners must be compensated and restored.
"We never buy the idea of destroying investments worth billions of naira in our community and ECTDA should vacate our land. They have no authority to come into our land and what the state wanted to acquire during the Nwobodo administration was 318 plots which have not been acquired because there was no compensation, no agreement, and no nothing."
The octogenarian appealed to Governor Peter Mbah to pay adequate compensation to affected persons.
"The government at the same time should also leave our land alone because it is our ancestry property. We only sold it to developers that bought it from us and we are not going back on that," he said.
According to him what was destroyed in Uzamagu village included "a massive hotel that is nearly completed, six bungalows and 13 duplexes and one stand-alone duplex. The one belonging to a native of our community is 21 bungalows."
Concerning the reason given for the demolition, he said that "ECTDA is working in collaboration with Centenary who are more interested in acquiring land of Uzamagu people”.
He said, “So what they are after is to destroy those properties and take over the land but that is unacceptable to us. There is no court order authorising them to carry out the demolition of those properties legally acquired with government certification.
"They have not told us where they are going. We are going to fight against this autocratic regime to any length with whatever is available to us. Injustice begets lawlessness because our land will not be given to those who do not own it.
"These investors are the ones building roads in our community, they are the ones putting electricity and water. No government presence in our community. It is an aberration that the same government that's calling on the people to come to Enugu and invest are the ones going about destroying people's investments in the state because some government officials want to grab land.
“The governor has been making a call for people to come home and invest. How can you after you have invested with huge amount of money the same government will want to concern that same property either to their cronies or for their personal use? If you want us to come and invest, allow our property to stay. Allow the owners of the land to detect what they want their land to be used for."
He added, "Uzamagu Village is pulling efforts together and is fully in touch with our community, Obeagu Awkunanaw and we will throw our full weight behind all their efforts in this fight.
"Obeagu is one big family and together we will challenge this recklessness using every legal means possible."
In Save Our Souls letter to Governor Mbah, the community called on the state government to wade into the matter and unravel the true status of the land and allow indigenous owners to enjoy their inheritance or at worst compel parties to await the outcome of court determination on which party has a valid title.
They decried that a private estate with the state capital territory has caused damages to the tenants of the indigenous owners and “one wonders what will be the fate of the culprits if, at the end of the day, the indigenous owners win the case in court which has more than 80% chances because available evidence and documents show that the land was never acquired by any valid government”.
"It amounts to an act of lawlessness and barbarism for one to employ self-help in demolishing other people’s properties without a valid court order.
"We demand that ECTDA should rebuild or compensate all those whose properties were illegally demolished.
"The entire people of Uzamagu, Obeagu Awkunanaw hereby call on the Governor of Enugu State, Dr Peter Ndubisi Mbah, who by the grace of God, is a lawyer, to immediately constitute a judicial commission of inquiry and allow parties to prove their cases or wait for the determination of the suits in court," they appealed.
Reacting to the demolition, the Enugu State government refuted the alleged indiscriminate demolition of properties at the Enugu Lifestyle and Golf City, also known as Enugu Centenary City.
It said it only demolished illegal and uncompleted structures which served as kidnappers’ hideouts, stressing that it was yet to demolish any of the unapproved but completed and/or occupied properties in the area.
The government said the action of ECTDA in collaboration with security agencies underscored its commitment to the security of lives and property and the protection of investments and contracts with investors.
The Commissioner for Information, Enugu State, Mr Aka Eze Aka, and the Executive Chairman, ECTDA, Hon. Uche Anya, made this known while conducting journalists to some demolished structures located deep in the forest of the Centenary City located at Obeagu/Amechi Akwunanaw in Enugu South LGA.
Eze said: “What we saw in the trending video today was an attempt by the originators to demarket Enugu State as an investment destination for Real Estate development.
“But in reality, the operation by ECTDA and the security agencies was a testament that government is resolved to rid the state of criminal elements and protect property rights and investments in the state.
“In this instance, you are all aware of the distance we travelled from the city to get to this place. The culprits did not only erect the structures without any title and approval, they got inside this place pretending to be a block industry, whereas as you can see, they were into nefarious activities.”
The ECTDA Chairman, Uche Anya, however, said the agency would not “succumb to blackmail, including recycling and trending of videos of past demolitions.”
“It is apposite to state that the action of the ECTDA in Centenary City is Rule of Law at work.
“The ECTDA Law prohibits carrying out any development or municipal service within the Capital Territory without the written approval of the Authority. For the avoidance of doubts, Section 13 (1) of the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority Law, 2009, provides: ‘Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, as from the commencement of this Law, no person or body shall carry out any development or municipal service within the Capital Territory, unless such development or municipal service has been approved in writing by the Authority.’
“However, whereas the current ECTDA leadership is determined to stop unauthorised developments and carry on with the urban masterplan restoration and renewal process, including those initiated by successive administrations, we took the initiative to mark the affected properties in October 2023, issuing notices that should accord the developers a window to regularise their titles/properties, if any.
“For emphasis, even though the notices had since expired, no unapproved but completed or occupied building was demolished during the exercise by ECTDA. We are still calling on the developers to do the right thing.
“Meanwhile, it is to be made clear that the ECTDA operation of Friday, January 19, was based on an intelligence report about an illegal development/property that served as kidnappers’ den at the Centenary City. In the course of our due diligence, we also found out that the property, like many others at Centenary City, had no title or approval from the appropriate authorities.
“ the building was not fully completed, the criminals had already mounted sophisticated surveillance equipment such as CCTV cameras, PTZ cameras, in addition to about two dozens of mobile phones denoting the dangerous level of sophistication.
“As some of the videos already in public domain clearly show we made some chilling discoveries on storming the property with security operatives, including several guns and suspected kidnappers, whom the security agents were able to apprehend."