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Scores of indigenes of Nchatancha Nike Community in Enugu East Local Government Area of the State on have staged a peaceful demonstration against the eviction of many residents by the state government.
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Many of the residents were said to have been evicted from their ancestral homes to give way to a “New Enugu.
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The eviction took place on February, 17, 2024, at Nchatancha Nike.
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A video of the protest which had gone varile in social media shows hundreds of residents marching through the streets of the community with placards and subsequently ending at Government House, Enugu.
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Some of them were heard chanting, “Governor Peter Mbah, don’t expel us from ancestry homes. We cannot be refuge in our land.”
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The protesting residents said in the video that the community had given Governor Mbah and his administration 5,000 plots of land measuring about 445 hectares of land to do whatever project he wanted to do and leave their residential houses which they built out of personal struggle.
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Briefing newsmen, a community leader, Nnam Ugwu decried that over 100 residents of the community had their houses marked and issued seven days’ eviction notices.
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According to him, the massive destruction of their farm crops runs into thousands of hectares of land.
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“The people of Nchatancha Nike want 50% or 40% of the land and not 100% total take over without compensation to the owners of the land.”
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“The problem why my community is protesting today is because the government has forcefully taken over 80 percent of the land of the community to build a private estate. The community has even agreed to give them 245 hectares of land to use for his so-called new Enugu city. We told them that if it is not enough, they should collect from other communities but they refused.
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“The government wants to push us out of our community and we don’t know where they want us to go. So, that is why my community is protesting. The government has started demolition, today, the 17th of February 2024, about 50 caterpillars are there demolishing our community – both people’s houses and farm crops with the famine going on in the country.
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“The government cannot drive us out of our community. Where do we go? We are calling on the Catholic Church and elder statesmen in Enugu state to talk to Governor Peter Mbah to stop the eviction. Probably he may not be aware of the destruction of our community, Nchatancha Nike,” he decried.
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“We wonder why Governor Peter Mbah who had in earlier discussion with community leaders promised that the issue of acquisition will not affect any of the residents will turn around to evict people from their ancestral homes without compensation”, Ugwu stated.
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Recall that clarification was made by the Secretary to Enugu State State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, during a site visit at Nchatancha Nike where a bulldozer was allegedly attacked.
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He reportedly vowed that the government would not be deterred in its determination to actualise the first phase of the new city in 24 months as already agreed with the China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) in October.
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He said that the governor, who already had a series of conversations and buy-in of the communities ahead and in the course of the project had ordered the contractors to begin a 24-hour construction work.
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Onyia was quoted to have said: “What we have discovered was that a few of community members, in noticing how bullish the governor is in building this New Enugu City, embarked on selling the lands to unsuspecting individuals, knowing that those buyers, not them, will now have to contend with the government.
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“But I think we need to step back and answer the questions on when this process started. The first acquisition process started long before this government came. People have been served the notice many years ago that there would be a day like this when a government would decide that it is now time to actualise the promise to build a new city.
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“But in doing that, what the governor decided would happen first is to clear the first 1,000 hectares. There are no homes here, as you can see. A few of the marked items you saw at the entrance belong to federal institutions.“To make sure that no one was left without proper compensation, the governor constituted the Inter-Ministerial Committee, which I chair. We have also put out an announcement. So far, nobody has submitted anything because we are not even at that stage of demolishing anything yet. If you look around, all you see are farmlands. There is no building here, just a bush.”
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It was learnt that the attempt to acquire the massive land at Nchatancha a suburb near Enugu the state capital began in Ex-governor Sullivan Chime’s administration before it was vehemently resisted by the people of the community.
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Apparently not done, the immediate-past governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi revived the quest to claim the land but was also resisted by the community before it was put on hold.
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The present administration of Peter Mbah seems to have taken it as a challenge to takeover the land, hence the restiveness in the community.
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Checks showed that about eight persons were arrested during the last protest and had been charged to court and remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service for alleged terrorism, amongst others.
