Featured, Opinion
By Ogazi Igbonekwu Ogazimorah
REACTIONS to the demolition of over 200 ongoing structures in the Centenary City by the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, ECTDA, on January 19, 2024, were deafening. It generated an intense social media frenzy and caused the rise of debates across.
This writer reacted in writing to some of the entries on social media platforms. Calls came for deeper insight into what has become the unending demolitions and waste of resources. More pathetic are the cases of simple, humble home seekers who invest the little they have only for the structures to be knocked down. In many cases, they were not in violation of any building or districting rule, but were caught in the vicious fight between land grabbers and their friends in government. In some cases, they are victims of the usual tussles for leadership of town unions in some heady communities.
More embarrassing are cases of people coming to Enugu in response to the call, ‘Ndigbo to think home’, only to have their life savings demolished in inexplicable land tussles among actors.
This reporter decided to find out.
PART ONE REPORT
THE ISSUES
The idea of acquiring the Obeagu/Amechi Awkunanaw lands for overriding public interest started in 1980, by the government of Chief Jim Nwobodo. The charismatic and then dashing young governor had planned out the establishment of a University of Science and Technology, UNITECH, and had decided to locate it within his Awhunanaw clan. His is from Amechi Awkunanaw.
Obeagu and the adjoining Awkunanaw communities were overjoyed.
But Nwobodo was in a hurry. He procured the premises of the popular Institute of Management and Technology, IMT, at the plush Independence Layout, Enugu, as a temporary site to start the university, even as he continued discussions with the Obeagu-Awkunanaw communities on designating a 318-hectare area of their lands as the proposed permanent site of the University.
The communities readily agreed in principle, especially motivated by the possibilities of rapid development of their area if a university would be located on their soil. For that matter, the University of Science and Technology, UNITECH, being the first in Nigeria after the one set in Port Harcourt in 1967 by the administration of General Odumegwu Ojukwu of defunct Biafran, was quickly scuttled by General Yakubu Gowon government after the war.
In that age of undiluted trust, confidence, and a relaxed approach to governance, the areas were merely marked, and only verbal exchanges were leisurely put across in preparation for a memorandum of understanding, MOU, between the Obeagu-Awkunanaw community/ies and the Government of old Anambra State. Nothing had been put on paper.
Nwobodo had promised, and the people had hoped, that if he was reelected for a second tenure as governor, the final arrangements for transfer of the 318-hectare land, payment of compensations, evacuation of crops and economic trees, and actual construction of the university were going to assume speeded trajectory.
They were mistaken, as Nwobodo was also mistaken. He lost the 1983 election, despite being very popular and having performed very well in his first tenure. He lost and his successor in office, Chief CC Onoh, barely settled in office when he was removed in a nationwide military putsch 88 days later. The first military administrator, Allison Madueke, left office in August of 1985 when General Ibrahim Babangida, overthrew General Muhammed Buhari at the center. That was just about the 20th month in the lifespan of the government. Madueke never did a jack in the proposed permanent site at Obeagu-Amechi-Awkunanaw.
Successive State administrations came and departed and nothing was added, nothing was heard of and no further propositions were made of the permanent site of ASUTECH as it was soon renamed afterwards. Indeed, rather than consider a permanent site for the university, the successive administrations embarked on the multiplication of the campuses of the University. One was in Awka, the other in Abakaliki and the teaching hospital was moved to Nene, the hometown of then military governor, Col. Bob Akonobi. When Anambra was split, the Okweislieze Nwodo administration created the Nsukka (Adada) campus. Nobody gave any serious thought to any permanent site again.
Successive generations of graduates passed out from the University without even knowing that their revered institution was a tenant on the premises of the State Polytechnic.
Naturally, the communities continued their usual farming activities on the land. Fish ponds, chicken poultry, piggeries, goat pens, vegetable farms, cassava farms, etc, continued to dominate the landscape of the banks of the Ngene Ogwe stream and the Odeje Lake.
THE PRIZE FLIES AWAY
The introduction of the Chimaroke Nnamani administration in 1999 was to mark an end to any government interest on the land. Sources close to the community revealed to this reporter that Nnamani initially asked to be briefed on the possibility of reviving the project on the same land, but he was not happy with the demands put across by the various communities. One strong political leader said to be from one of the adjoining communities was revealed to be more stringent in his demands. Nnamani was pissed and headed to the communities adjoining his native Agbani community. So, Agbani, Amurri, Obe and Umueze communities quickly made the provisions for land, and work for the erection of the permanent was commenced in 2004. Nnamani’s drive was an instant success. Academic activities commenced on the permanent site, now called Ebeano City, in 2006. The idea of a university in Obeagu became as dead as a dodo, and the community/ies continued their traditional and modern economic usages and activities on their lands.
NEW STRANGE SIGHTINGS
The repeated sighting of helicopters and drones above the skies of Obeagu and Amechi Awkunanaw heightened in early 2008, that being the first year in office of Governor Sullivan Chime. The communities began to suspect and soon commenced inquiries.
The first hint of newer interest in the lands came with reports of the new administration planning a new township to commemorate the centenary of the founding of Coal and the commencement of urban development in Enugu by the colonial government. Coal, already in use by the locals who called it ‘ukwaka oji,’ as against ‘ukwaka ocha,’ (calabash chalk), was to assume commercial export value and a new township and city administration were necessary for colonial expansion.
The President General of Obeagu Community, Chief Andy Egbo said that the various Awkunanaw communities, Enugu-Ngwo, the Nike clan, etc., had already contributed so immensely to the development of the new town, having yielded the areas that are now Ogui Township, Ogui New Layout, Ogbete, GRA, Uwani Independence Layout, Emene, Abakpa, Asata, New Haven, etc. Abor and Ukana have joined in contribution of swaths of land forming Trans Ekulu extension. “We have lost lands, and we are still losing…so, this time around, provisions must be made for our coming generations to have where they can call a home,” he said. He added that if in the wisdom of government, their lands were desired, such would be provided on mutually agreed and beneficial terms.
According to Egbo, “When we started seeing those helicopters and drones, we started asking. It was discovered that government interest had returned to the same land initially reserved for the building of the permanent site of UNITECH. We waited, believing that after flying high in the sky, the people in the helicopters and drones would come down and discuss with us.”
They, he said with horror, were mistaken.
The government never came to them, and soon they started hearing that the government had planned to use the area initially mapped out as UNITECH/ASUTECH/ESUT permanent site to raise the planned new town. “The Community continued to wait patiently, believing that the governor, Sullivan Chime, being a lawyer, knew what was right and would approach the community in due course.
Again, they were mistaken.
THE HORROR BEGINS
The Chime administration had, on May 18, 2009, quickly and secretly agreed to the ‘cession of the former ESUT permanent site to a personal company named Private Estates International West Africa Limited, PEIWA.’ Its operational offices were said to be in Lagos and South Africa. Dr. Festus Uzor, as Commissioner for Lands and Housing Development, along with a certain Mazi Ndubisi Eneh, signed for the government. A certain Mr. Kingsley Eze, said to be the managing director and chief executive officer of the private company signed for PEIWA and his signature was witnessed by a certain Okore Stanley.
“This was shocking to us,” the elders yelled to this reporter, in unison. “Obeagu community was neither invited nor represented in the discussions leading to the agreement in ceding of the lands.”
To drive its claim, the private company, PEIWA was said to have procured an official gazette of Anambra State of Nigeria dated March 27th 1986, purporting to have alienated the lands to the government for the establishment of the permanent site of ASUTECH. The authorization of the Gazette was said to be by Navy Captain Allison Madueke who, unbeknown to whoever issued that gazette, had, since August 1985, been removed as the military governor of Enugu State. That was not all there was in the huge trouble created. Obeagu community leaders yelled at this reporter, “Rather than the planned 318 hectares of land as promised to the then Governor Nwobodo by Obeagu Community, the size now trebled to 1, 097 hectares.”
Naturally, “Obeagu and Amechi,” Egbo said, “were horrified…and soon began to enquire about the ceding of such outrageous size of lands, to a private businessman, to make his own money, leave nothing for the community and laugh at us as if we are foreigners on our land.”
They soon found out that the captured areas had extended into their homes. “The home of the traditional ruler of Obeagu, Igwe Mike Nnukwu; the personal home of one Honourable Paul Ogbe, a former member of the Enugu State House of Assembly; his farm, among others; and many other homes, were now included as areas being conceded the private developer, PEIWA.” The community also learned that no single word was mentioned about reaching a memorandum of understanding, MOU, with the communities. Same way, no word about compensation for unexpired assets and development on the lands. And to worsen matters, the cession was not done “for overriding public interest.”
“Sullivan Chime and Festus Uzor just entered into this agreement as if we were not in existence. They discussed what would be of benefit to them…on our land and think that it will stand. Never!” Egbo yelled.
GAZETTE? WHICH GAZETTE?
Since the mention of a gazette, people have been asking around what they meant by parading a gazette said to be made in 1986 but which only surfacing now. Attorneys at law who would not want to be drawn into discussions of the development since it is sub judice pointed this reporter to some case laws establishing how notifications for revocation could be carried out. Being a lawyer, also, this reporter will not like to go into the details yet.
Of course, there have been some curious features in the Gazette, which leaders of the Obeagu community pointed out.
i. It was claimed to be made by Navy Captain Allison Madueke, whereas the military governor had departed the old Anambra State in August 1985 and couldn’t have authored or authorized the issuance of a Gazette in 1986. Former Governor Nwobodo had taken half a page in the Vanguard newspaper of Wednesday, March 4, 2020, to condemn and denounce the Gazette as “unreal and invalid.”
ii. The Gazette covered the revocation of 1,097 hectares whereas the Community/ies as confirmed by the former governor, had been in talks with the Nwobodo administration on a mere 318 hectares.
iii. The Plan number, EN(A)594 is believed by the Obeagu people to be unreal. They believed that if it was genuine, it would have been prefixed ‘AN’ (Anambra) instead of ‘EN’ (Enugu).
iv. Enugu State came into existence in 1991, and the use of ‘EN’ had started therefrom.
v.The said Gazette was not known to be in existence anywhere in Enugu State and if it was made in 1986, it never came to notice of any known Obeagu or Amechi or Nkanu man, many of whom worked in the Government Printing Press.
vi. Indeed, the copy that the developer attached in most of its transactions was a certified true copy obtained on July 3, 2009 from the Government Printer.
vii. Revocation of land as provided in law, the Obeagu community argues, could not have been by publishing in a gazette but by proper prior notice, in writing, and delivery of such notification to the person suffering revocation. None of these happened from 1986 to 2009, 23 years after the purported publication in a gazette. The community even anchored their argument in case law on the “proper notice of revocation” as per Mohammed JSC.
viii. The Government Committee report also shows a retinue of case laws that indicate that the Gazette, if not unreal and invalid, must fail.
THE AVALANCHE BROKE
Obeagu community now felt that it had had enough of the antics of the private businessmen whom they strongly believed were fronts for persons in the Chime administration. Under the aegis of the Obeagu Welfare Association, they drew strong protest letters to various leaders, local government, State government, and specifically to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. Their demands were poignant.
i.Recognition of the community’s willingness to partner with only the government in the development of Enugu State, especially with regard to their lands.
ii. Rejection of any manipulation to railroad them into deals with so called private estate investors not coming directly to them.
iii. Restriction of discussions, proposed development and public interest projects on the original 318 hectares as already designed in principle with the government of Jim Nwobodo, of course with clearly designed and implemented compensation plans.
iv. Payment of due compensation and fair price for their lands if proper negotiation can take place on the 318 hectares, only.
v. Immediate halt to security harassment inflicted on the natives in their farms, village paths and homes, and,
vi. Lifting of the blockade against their people’s access to the Enugu/PH expressway through their erstwhile traditional pathways now forcefully included in the Centenary City.”
The traditional ruler, Igwe Mike Nnukwu, and the President General, Chief Hon. Andy Egbo, along with six others signed the demand.
Litigation fireworks also commenced in all quarters. The government was inundated with tons of petitions from adjoining communities. The developer continued in his drive, using soldiers, policemen, civil defence, secret police, and any available operative to chase, beat, punish, and harass members of the Community.
In a move, seemingly to douse the tension generated so far, the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, in 2018, first, revoked the certificate of occupancy issued to PEIWA by the Chime administration. He followed this with the setting of an Executive Council Committee, headed by Dr. Peter Chigozie Okonkwo. Other members were Dr. Festus Uzor, Barrister Chidi Aroh, Hon. Solomon Onah, Hon. Aloysius Sunday Ogbodo and Surv. Godwin Ishiwu, who was then the Acting Surveyor General of Enugu State.
The mandate was to investigate the “Festering feud between Obeagu Community & Private Estate International West African Ltd (a.k.a Centenary City).”
STRIKING and STINKING REVELATIONS
When the committee invited the parties to make their representations, the cats were let out of the bag:
i.1,097 hectares of Obeagu land were ceded to Private Estates International West Africa, PEIWA, at the paltry sum of five hundred Naira (N500. 00) per square metrr, payable to the government of Enugu State.
ii. Developer/PEIWA had been selling the plots at between N25million and N35million. Staggering profit and not even peanuts for the Obeagu Community.
iii. A Building Certificate of Occupancy was issued to the PEIWA in November 2009, by the Chime administration.
iv. Ground rent was fixed at N33 million, for 2009, but it was waived for the benefit of the PEIWA by the Chime administration. It is not clear if it has remained waived in subsequent years, but there has been no indication that it is being paid to the government.
v.The business transaction, as captured in Article 2.2 of the New Township Development Agreement between the government and PEIWA was stated as no partnership ‘whatsoever’ between the government of Enugu State and the PEIWA, and so every profit made remains the property of the private company.
vi. In Article 3.1.2 under financial provisions, ‘every payment of the land price to government by developer shall be in installments and shall be postponed to the time of sale of Estate Sites in the Township’ by PEIWA.
vii. The private company had obtained a loan of N2 billion from the Diamond Bank Plc., to finance the Centenary City.
viii. Leaders of Obeagu strongly believe that the loan had grown in huge interest charges to over a N7billion and that the private estate company, in connivance with elements of the then Chime government, used the Obeagu-Awkunanaw ancestral lands as collateral for a loan the community knew nothing about.
ix. In one of the memos made to the Committee by PEIWA, they admitted that Diamond Bank was in possession of all the documents on the transactions, and had taken charge of sales on the land.
x. Leaders of the Obeagu Community strongly believe that the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, which had raised issues with the poorly performing loans by Diamond Bank would swoop on the Community lands, to sell them off to recoup the public money borrowed by PEIWA.
xi. They never ceased screaming to the high heavens that their lands could not be used for collateral by people who had no stake whatsoever.
SUCCOUR FLIES AWAY
Obeagu Community, as other stakeholders, believed that succor was on the way in the manner the EXCO Committee approached the task. It was with zeal, precision, dedication, forthrightness, and candour.
In the “background facts” in its un-released/unpublished “final report”, it stated, “compulsory acquisition of land for overriding public interest was the intendment of the planned discussions with the people of Obeagu-Awkunanaw by the Jim Nwobodo administration,” but we must note that it was for “overriding public interest.” That is one striking reference to the motive of PEIWA and those who backed it – the difference between public interest and private profit motive must be established.
Yes, land for building of the permanent site of a public university is certainly of public interest, Egbo of Obeagu Community agreed. But can such compulsory acquisition for the benefit of a private company whose primary motive is personal profit qualify as representing “overriding public interest? he queried,” and many echoed, “no.”
They also ask, at what point did the mere expression of willingness to cede 318 hectares to the government of Jim Nwobodo quickly translate to secret cession of 1,097 hectares of their land to a private company, to make profit for itself and leave the entire community to squeeze into the few remainder land areas?
At the end of their sittings, the Committee made strong and clear-head recommendations to the government. It first admitted that “taking away a whopping 1,097 hectares of ancestral land from one community will amount to obliterating the entire net worth of such community.”
In the passionate appeal for its recommendations to be taken seriously, the Committee Chairman, Okonkwo, pleaded, “I invite all of us to listen to the inner recesses of our conscience, think and reflect if this commercial and forceful takeover is happening in our village backyard, how ‘we will’ react to it”
The EXCO Committee now proceeded to its 7-point recommendations.
1. The Obeagu Community should concede the original 318 hectares of this land to Private Estates International West Africa Ltd under a negotiated compensation to be paid by the Company to the Obeagu Community.
2. PEIWA should apply for a fresh certificate of occupancy from the government to cover the area of 318 hectares of land at Obeagu since the government had revoked its earlier certificate of occupancy issued in 2009.
3. The government should grant a waiver of premium payment to PEIWA over 318 hectares since the now revoked C-of-O was actually defective.
4. The government should promptly receive the sum of N149 million owed by PEIWA. (An indication of the possibility that the private company had not been paying the original premium and ground rent to the government).
5. The government should interface with both Parties (Obeagu and PEIWA) and extract assurances of compliance with the recommendations.
6. Government and PEIWA should reassess the peanut provision of N500.00 per square metre as a benefit accruing to Enugu State under the New Township Development Agreement, to increase it upwardly to a decent level that can sustain this partnership, and,
7. The government should use all its apparatus to chase away from the land any Party that disagrees with the settlement of this matter.
These were to be grand succor to the beleaguered Obeagu Community and other stakeholders. People who had access to this or who got a wind of it, waited in nerve shattering silence.
But guess what?
The Report was arrested.
It was never officially released to the public and copies available are only glimpsed at in the homes of some connected political leaders in Enugu State.
PEIWA, which the Community believes had agents in the government, went to court against the government. Obeagu community applied for a joinder and it was granted. Again, issues were joined, about the third case involving the Obeagu community alone.
And although the Obeagu Community was disappointed that the Committee report was not allowed to see the light of day, it still strongly believed that the Governor, Ugwuanyi, was going to be fair and just to them.
Soon, they said they learnt, they were no longer sure of who to trust.
VOLTE-FACE
In a curious twist, the government did a strange and shocking about-turn and went into an out-of-court settlement with PEIWA, in which no mention of Obeagu and its interests were made. This was after the application for joinder was granted to Obeagu and other interested parties. The Consent Judgment that followed was like a thunderbolt, “indeed a cruel betrayal and act of cowardice” by the government, they yelled at this reporter. Watchers of the ensuing dispute were shocked. Obeagu community, dazed and furious, quickly challenged the consent judgment as not binding on it and of no effect in matters relating to their lands. The matter is still pending in court.
To date, nobody can tell what led to the volt face by the government. So many unconfirmed claims are flying around. Some of them actually cut deep into conscience, greed, and primitive accumulation. But there are yet no solid pointers to anchor the claims on. If they are not mere speculations, they may be available as the fireworks intensify in the future.
ECTDA ENTERS THE RING
Friday, January 2024, the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, ECTDA, stormed the Centenary with its demolition machines. Of course, if you know ECTDA and the other city demolishers, you would connect with the tales of woe, gnashing of teeth, and threats of suicide by individual home and business owners. The bulldozers or were they the drivers were merciless. Anger took the waves.
Chairman of ECTDA, Barrister Uche Anya, was stalwart in his response to public condemnation of the demolitions. “ECTDA will continue to protect investors in Enugu,” he said in a press statement. To this assertion, the people of Obeagu, through their P.G. retorted, “forceful takeover of our lands cannot mean investment.”
The Community believed that ECTDA, which was aware of the legal fireworks in the lands, was only hired for the ‘unholy’ job. And Egbo was certain that the Governor, Peter Mbah, had no hand in it. “We have fully briefed His Excellency on the land. We believe that he will not stand by or be a part of this mindless oppression of our people,” he said.
Another community leader said that he had it on good authority that Mbah had stated that he was only interested in the New Enugu Development Project which is a planned eastward expansion of the metropolis, and not the Centenary City.
If they were right, it now becomes a wonder why ECTDA got into it. Obeagu leaders believe that it was “a paid job. Buildings erected on plots allocated by the Communities were targeted and demolished while those built on lands allocated by PEIWA were not touched,” they said, in frustration and anger.
“Members of our community have been denied of going to the farms. They can’t go to the streams to fetch water. And this time, it is not the Fulani who chase people away from farms, but so-called estate developers who used Sullivan Chime and his Commissioner, Festus Uzor, to attempt to forcefully take over our land. Soldiers, Policemen, Civil Defence, and all manner of security operatives are used by this so-called developer to chase, beat, detain, and punish our people. They force old women to roll on mud. They force our men and women to frog-jump in the farms, streams, and on the village paths. They behave like an occupation force. We are in hell.”
On Thursday, January 25, 2024, an Enugu High Court granted the plea of the Communities for an injunction restraining ECTDA or its agents and associates from further demolitions.
January 26, a group named Concerned Kindred Families of Amechi Uwani, led by Richard Nnabuchi Nnamani (Onodugo) published its message of condemnation of the demolition of people’s structures, reminding ECTDA that the matters were still pending in court. They also denounced every one of the documents of claim by PEIWA, calling them manipulations to dispossess their people.
The fireworks is gathering momentum, again.
This reporter made unsuccessful efforts to contact the private investor and the government. No member of the past administration’s EXCO committee agreed to be quoted, “for now” only.
***Igbonekwu Ogazimorah, an experienced Lagos journalist and lawyer, was Chief Press Secretary to Governor Chimaroke Nnamani. serving later as the Commissioner for Information Strategies, Culture, and Tourism.
A.
-JANUARY 28, 2024 @ 13:23 GMT|
Tags: Col. Bob Akonobi. Enugu centenary war Ogazi Igbonekwu Ogazimorah
