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Chuks Onuoha, Aba
Residents of Okpuulo-Umuobu area of Aba, Abia State, who are living within Abia State Broadcasting Corporation (BCA) Substation compound, have appealed to the state government to give them some time to relocate.
The residents who made the appeal following the expiration of the January 31 deadline given by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu for them to quit the compound urged the government to grant them a brief period to find another place to stay.
Daily Sun has learnt that some landlords are still collecting new rent from unsuspecting tenants even while the date of the quit order has expired.
A resident, who identified himself as Ifeanyi Arisa, claimed that one Friday Nwosu gave him the portion of land he is using as a mechanical workshop and that he pays him N45,000 annually.
He stressed that Nwosu has not asked him to quit the land or notified him of any plan by the government to quit.
He urged the government to grant a brief period to find another place to stay to enable them to continue accessing customers’ patronage to keep providing for their families.
Roseline Chukwu, an Abia Polytechnic student and tenant of a house on Three R Hotel street, Okpuulo-Umuobo, said her landlord never told her that the house had been marked for demolition by government.
She said that she has been hearing news from others that they should vacate the house before the government demolishes it.
“We heard we need to leave before January ending, but when we called the landlord, he said that if there is such information it would have come from him and if such a thing exists he will fight for us,” she explained
“We have been calling him and when last he came, he told us that he was going to Umuahia for a meeting but many days after he is yet to tell us the outcome of the meeting. He is still taking money from prospective tenants and fresh house rent from old tenants, this is very unfair.”
Chukwu pleaded with the government to give them time to get new residences and vacate since the landlords have hidden the demolition plan from them and are still going ahead to demand new rents.
Ifeoma Okonye, another Abia Polytechnic student and a tenant along Three R Hotel, Okpuulo Umuobo, Aba, said she recently paid her landlord N130,000 as house rent without him telling her the house is to be demolished.
She said she is shocked and dumbfounded as she just packed in last Monday only to hear of the plan by the government to demolish the building.
Okonye begged that tenants be given a few months to find new residences and quit their current tenancy so as not to be made victims of greedy landlords in the area.
About 80 hectares of land was donated by indigenes of the area for the construction of the Imo Broadcasting Service (IBS) substation in the late 1980s during Chief Sam Mbakwe reign as Governor. As a result of the transition from Imo State to Abia State and from one government to another, the substation was overlooked and people crept into it, building houses and establishing businesses on the land.
On realizing the illegality going on in the government property, the state governor gave January 31 as the deadline for tenants resident in the land to quit.
While the demolition is being awaited, some landlords are still collecting news rent from unsuspecting tenants.
