*Calls on govt to compensate affected business owners, obey court order
By Ada Chukwuowe, Enugu
The governorship candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections in Enugu State, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, has condemned the recent demolition of businesses and properties in parts of the state by the Peter Mbah administration.
In a statement on Wednesday, Edeoga stated that although the state needs modern infrastructure and improvements, it must not be at the expense of the sources of livelihoods of thousands of people, or in disregard to court order.
The Peter Mbah administration had demolished thousands of businesses, an educational inatitution, private motor parks and residential buildings around Ogbete Main Market in Enugu metropolis, around Garki Awkunanaw market, Nsukka main market and motor parks, for proposed Ultra-Modern motor parks.
But, Edeoga bemoaned the demolition insisting that government actions created more pain and panic than whatever value that may be buried in those projects.
He insisted that before government could destroy peoples sources of livelihood, it should consult the business owners, give long notices to them, pay them adequate compensation and provide alternative places for them to carry out their businesses at government expenses.
According to the LP governorship standard bearer: “The gale of destruction, executed with what looks like a predetermined despotic dispatch that jettisoned sensitivity to humanity and the rule of law affected thousands of people, businesses, and even educational institutions across Nsukka, Enugu metropolis and Gariki, in Awkunanaw, a satellite town in Enugu.
“Interestingly, the Enugu State Government extended its long fingers of impunity to Our Saviour’s Institute of Science and Technology (OSISATECH), a private institution of higher learning belonging to a charismatic catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Edeh.
“This educational institution was levelled despite a court order obtained to prevent the school’s demolition,” he said.
Edeoga added that, “If there have been suspicions that the administration in Enugu State is insensitive to public sentiment and disdainful of the rule of law, the demolition of OSISATECH tended to validate it.
“It is scary that a government that swore to uphold the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is routinely disobeying court orders.
“Interestingly, these businesses were forced, only a few months ago, to pay huge taxes and levies on those shops.
“In Nsukka the Enugu State government is poised to bring down shops, stalls, and plazas of businessmen around and within the perimeters of the towns main motor park. Equally marked are stores within the Nsukka main market.
“It is curious that the Enugu State Government waited until it had collected these levies and taxes before destroying the sources of those funds”.
He added that, “While it is understood that some of those areas demolished have constituted challenges of congestion and are due for some form of urban renewal, it must be recognized that no urban renewal activity has ever happened in one fell swoop.
“Development, especially as it affects urban renewal is an incremental activity that takes cognizance of impacts on persons and businesses.
“A government that is genuinely focused on renewal approaches such changes with the well-being of the people as its priority”.
Edeoga maintained that destroying that number of businesses for motor parks smarks of insensitive, stressing that the state government should “either relocate the markets and businesses in those areas to another location, if the motor parks must be at the heart of the city or building the garages on the outskirts of the city”.
He continued: “The essence of government everywhere in the world is the aggregation of the needs of the people into a pool where common solutions are incubated; it is the building of consensus on what constitutes the common good bearing in mind the social, economic, and even personal sensitivities.
“Democratic legitimacy ultimately belongs to the people, and that is why everything governments do must factor in the sensitivity of all concerned.
“But it appears that in Enugu State, under the current administration, the government considered its needs to be higher and more important than those of the people.
“While it is too late in the day to, as they say, put the toothpaste back into the tube, the Enugu State Government should take immediate remedial steps to ease the burdens of all the people displaced by the demolition.
“Efforts should also be made to build new markets to accommodate all the people affected by the demolition exercise.
“Shops in those markets must be allocated at no cost to the people, while amenities that would drive traffic to the new locations must also be provided”.
Hon. Edeoga Equally noted that “disobedience by the government, of a court order against the demolition, is also viewed by every right-thinking member of society as inherently tyrannical,” urging government to “conduct a census of all the people affected by the demolition exercise and pay due and adequate compensation to them.
“The compensation should include the cost of the lost structures, assets, and inventory and the estimated earnings for the period between the date of the demolition and the time the government provides alternative markets.
“Nobody is against development. However, the views, needs, and priorities of the people must be constructively sought and factored into all decision-making processes.
“That is why it is called the government of the people, and by the people, and for the people”.
