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From AloysiusAttah, Onitsha
They wore mournful looks and some widows among them wailed uncontrollably as they held up placards with various inscriptions, pouring out their hearts in lamentation over their plight in the hands of an Onitsha family since November last year.
They were hundreds of marketwomen selling mostly foodstuff, vegetables and fruits at the popular Pocket Layout Market, Woliwo, Onitsha, Anambra State, who recently embarked on a peaceful protest over their eviction and the demolition of their stalls and goods by the Ukwa family in Onitsha.
The women, who marched along the ever busy Port Harcourt Road, Onitsha, to press home their agitation, said the Ukwa family stormed the area late last year with bulldozers, thugs and some uniformed men and demolish their stalls and goods worth millions of naira, in a bid to sack them from the area, as the family laid claim to ownership of the land.
The protesting women said they lost huge sums of money and sustained injuries while being forced to leave their stalls in November last year, though they later returned there for business, until the same family came back recently with the same mission of evicting them permanently from the place.
Inscriptions on the placards included: “Governor Soludo please save us from Ukwa family,” “We have Certificate of Occupancy of this land from government,” “Governor Chukwua Soludo come to our aid as some people want to dispossess widows of their shops,” “We cannot succumb to intimidation and harassment in this market because we are not illegal occupants,” “Ukwa family show us court papers with which you won the government over this land,” and “We secured approval for building our shops here during Dr. Jim Nwobodo’s administration,” among others.
First to speak was Mrs. Anthonia Nnamele, who showed reporters her damaged foodstuff owing to the forceful removal of the roof covering her stall by the enforcers, with the effect that most of her goods now get soaked with water whenever it rains.
“The Onitsha family invaded this place and destroyed our stalls. We are yet to recover from the losses we incurred but we managed to start a rebuilding process, when they landed again last week on the same mission to destroy our means of livelihood,” she lamented.
Mrs. Nnamele said she spent N180,000 in constructing the container shop she used as a stall in the area after getting approval from the original landowners of the place, the Igbokwe family, and she has been trading there under successive administrations without any harassment from government officials nor any family, until the Ukwa came and told them to vacate the place, claiming to be the rightful owners of the land.
Another victim, 70-year-old Theresa Chukwuemeka, recalled having stayed in the area since 1994 without any issue with anybody. She also recalled that, some years ago, some Onitsha people came to disturb them in the area and they cried to the local government authority, Government House, Awka, and the Obi of Onitsha’s palace.
She said the Obi of Onitsha told them then in plain language that the area was sold by government and Onitsha people had no claim to the place anymore.
“Obi Achebe assured us that he would do a public announcement to tell any Onitsha family coming to disturb us to steer clear of the place. We have been in peace since then, until now they descended on us again. Look at the bags of oranges I bought from Tivland in Benue, all of them have been destroyed. I sustained injuries the day they invaded here and they even collected our money forcefully that day,” she said.
She stated that, apart from getting approval from government, the traders also settled and got approval from the Igbokwe and Ezeudoye families who were their landlords, and since they started staying there over 50 years ago, nobody had come to lay claim to the land, and they had never heard that the land was in dispute.
Another distraught widow, Maria Madu, recalled in tears that she just resumed business after mourning her late husband when the Onitsha family suddenly swooped on them with earth-moving equipment. She said she had nowhere to store her goods anymore.
Nnamdi Ezeudoye, son of one of the landlords in the area, gave further insight on the problem they were facing. He disclosed that the Ukwa family actually brought a paper that looked like a notice to quit and pasted it in the market without any signature attached to it other than a phone number, which they were told to call.
He said, on calling the number, one would be referred to a private lawyer who normally told the callers that he was representing the Ukwa family whom he claimed had taken possession of the area. Nnamdi said the lawyer requested for the payment of a certain amount of money from any person still desirous of remaining in business in the area.
He also alleged that the family used one Major General Mbang, an in-law to the family, to mobilize soldiers to the market.
Eneh Chikeluba Godwin, a representative of the traders in the area, who also lamented the level of destruction visited on them in the market, averred that a church in the area was torched during the demolition. He also confirmed that they had a certificate of occupany issued to them during the Nwobodo administration to take ownership of the place.
A consultant and representative of the Ukwa family, Mr. Tony Onyido, when contacted by the reporter, said they only took over what belonged to them but had been denied them over the years.
Onyido said they had been patient, following due process to recover the land, which he said had been their rightful possession from day one.
He denied any destruction of shops and goods belonging to the traders and also said no one was injured in the process. He said they went there simply to inform the traders that ownership of the place had changed and whoever still wanted to stay there to trade should come for negotiation with the family.
Said Onyido, “We contested the land with Obosi people and finally got judgement in 1968 against Obosi people, but were not allowed to execute the judgement by the government.
“However, five years ago, we went back to court and have been vigorously following the mater in both court and government and, finally, the government recognized us as the authentic owners of the land and even gazetted it.
“We made a publication in the newspaper last year and gave the general public notice that anybody who is laying claim to the land should come to Anambra State Ministry of Lands to show ownership after 21 days, but nobody came to contest it and government gazetted it as our own.”
Major General Mbang, who was also accused of leading soldiers to the scene to effect the eviction and demolition, denied any complicity in the matter, when contacted.
He said: “To put the records straight, I am in-law to the family but we didn’t destroy anything there. It’s just like a case of a mechanic who took over an empty land. When the owner is ready to use it, he will simply tell the mechanic to move. That’s just what happened.”
