Demolition exercise turns bloody in Enugu community

   Uneasy calm is now building up at Ngwo near Enugu, the Enugu State capital, following the alleged killing of two persons by the police during a demolition exercise in the area alleged to have been ordered by the state government.

  The incident occurred at Ugwuomu-Ngwo, Oria Inye Bunker on Monday when properties worth N100 million were pulled down.Maka Ndigbo gathered that on Monday, a police van with description ‘Distress Call B, Department, Police headquarters, was seen carrying one dead body with mobile policemen armed to the teeth to the state police headquarters.It was further learnt that on Friday, January 16, 2015, at about 11:30 a m, one Aric Chime was said to have led a team of policemen numbering over 15 with bulldozer and excavator, in company of staff of Enugu State Capital Territory Development Authority, to the area in order to pull down storey buildings in the absence of the occupants.

One of the victims narrated to Nigerian Tribune

 “We reported to the Ngwo community and on Monday morning, they mobilised and came to the scene protesting and in a bid to stop further demolition of peoples’ houses, suddenly policemen numbering over 50 stormed the place shooting sporadically and in the process, two people were killed”.Another victim, who gave his name as Ezekiel Iwuorie, said that he was at Ogbete Market where his neighbour called and informed him that his house had been pulled down by one Aric Chime.

   According to him, he was not given any notice by anybody or court to leave or vacate his house which he bought as land from Ngwo community.“In 2013, one Aric Chime sought injunction from Enugu Magistrate Court stopping me from completing my storey building, which at the time, was at the plastering stage. He claimed that he bought the entire area from the Federal Government, courtesy of BPE. However, when the case started, he absconded and a judgment went in my favour to complete the house.

   “So, I was shocked to see my house completely demolished with all I had achieved for years destroyed without notice to vacate the house. This matter is still at the Federal High Court where the Ngwo community said they did not know him as the land belonged to them. The case was also at the state High Court precisely at court 11. The matter came up on December 17, 2014 and the said Aric Chime wasn’t in the court”.

   Efforts to hear the side of Aric Chime were not fruitful as he refused to answer calls from his GSM phone. But the state commissioner of police, Adamu Abubakar, who declined to comment on the alleged murder case, agreed that he only deployed his men to quell what he described as violent attack by Ngwo community on one Aric Chime’s company at the complex of the defunct Nigeria Coal Corporation, Enugu.