By ALEX ENEBELI

Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) said it will on May 3 demolish over 200 houses in Enugu Lifestyle and Golf City, otherwise known as Centenary city in obedience to court judgement.

The Public Relations Officer of ECTDA, Mr. Gideon Eze told newsmen on Tuesday in Enugu that the bulldozers were already on ground to carry out the demolition.

Eze said the authority was acting based on the judgement obtained by a developer, Private Estates International West Africa Limited (PEIWA) from the Enugu State High Court as the real owner of the land.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the large expanse of land, measuring 1097 hectares, was acquired by the estate developer during the Sullivan Chime administration.

Meanwhile, the owners of the land, Amechi and Obeagu communities in urban Enugu South Local Government, claimed that the developers in concert with then government of Chime annexed their ancestral land without consent.

Eze said ECTDA had issued last notice for demolition of the estates after a court order was given in resolution of the protracted land dispute which its Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) was revoked in 2019 by the Gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi administration but was restored after litigation.

“Based on the court judgement, the owner of the estate has written to the agency to eject the occupants in the land.

“We gave them notice since July 2021 to vacate but they refused, adding that we are not aware of any court injunction stopping us from carrying out the planned demolition,” Eze said.

Eze said the agency was not into negotiation or resolution of land disputes but was an enforcement agency carrying out its statutory function of restoration of city plan and removal of property in contravention to Enugu master plan.

Earlier, the two communities, Amechi and Obeagu, which embarked on protest against the demolition of the estate, pleaded with ECTDA to shelve its planned demolition of over 200 houses on the land.

The communities, however, had objected that they were not joined in the suit even when they applied to be joined, insisting that the ‘consent judgement’ between the state government and the private developer, was a travesty of justice.

They maintained that the indigenous owners of the disputed land were barred from being parties in the litigation.

The communities contended that since the initial 318 hectares of land mapped out for permanent site of the old Anambra State University of Science and Technology, ASUTECH, in 1982 was no longer used for the purpose it was meant, the land should return back to the communities.

The communities were seen chanting songs with masquerades and carried placards with inscriptions, ‘No going back in reclaiming our land’, ‘Enugu state government should know we have no other land and ‘We cannot run away from our home’.

Leader of the Ndiagu Amechi-Uwani Awkunanaw, Chief Sunday Nnaji, maintained that all the buildings the ECTDA marked for demolition was their ancestral home which were duly approved by the government agency.

Nnaji insisted that the state government had ulterior motive in its planned demolition of their native homeland.

On the other hand, the Traditional Ruler of Obeagu Awkunanaw community, HRH Mike Nnukwu, lamented that even his place would be affected in the demolition if the state government made good its threat of demolition. (NAN)

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