Former LP Gubernatorial Candidate Demands Apology For Demolition Of Shops

Gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, Chijioke Jonathan Edeoga, has called on the state government to apologise and compensate traders whose shops and business premises were demolished at the popular Ogige Nsukka market and other parts of the State.

Edeoga, who made the call while briefing newsmen in Abuja, stressed that the demolition affected many people, their dependents, and their sources of income and sent many to their early graves.

Edeoga who stressed that no alternative arrangement was made for the traders before the destruction, urged the government to come to the aid of the people.

“Most of them, if not all the traders and other victims have not received a dime from the state government as compensation for their losses, even as provisions of the Land Use Act had been flagrantly disobeyed. 

He explained that the vast settlement at Okpara Avenue, containing iconic buildings, banks, schools, SMEs, and an orphanage run by the Red Cross, transport terminals, among others were all destroyed.

“The demolition of centers of commerce and human habitation in Enugu metropolis, including; Gariki, Abakpa, and then Ogige market in Nsukka Local Government Area, carried out by Enugu State government officials with he excuse of rebuilding for public use, were done last month amid cries of anguish, hopelessness from the affected victims” he stated.

The Former Labour Party governorship candidate further explained that Ogige-Nsukka market was a cultural center and a daily market that serves both the interest of the locals of the immediate Nsukka environment and other buyers and sellers from Kogi, Benue, and other parts of Northern Nigeria”.

“The devastations, the horrors of which are beyond normal human contemplation were executed with little or no notice. They attracted widespread condemnation. and even outright demonstrations and marches by aggrieved people in parts of the state”, the Former LP gubernatorial candidate stated.

The Former labour party gubernatorial candidate said the Enugu state government claimed that it had resettled the traders of the Ogige Nsukka market, describing it as false.

Edeoga, therefore, called on the Enugu state governor, Mr. Peter Mbah to appeal to the people of the State asking for forgiveness and healing for the pains caused by the destruction.

By Georgina Humphrey