Groups protest revocation of Onitsha Bridge head land
• Wednesday, Jan 30, 2008

The Anambra branches of the Union of Oduduwa Descendants and Arewa Brothers Association have asked the state government to hands off the controversial Bridge Head Market land in Onitsha.

The Anambra State Government has been in a battle to revoke the piece of land earlier allocated to the Federal Urban Mass Transit, near the Onitsha bridge head.

In separate letters sent to Governor Peter Obi, the groups protested the way and manner their kinsmen, trading and operating motor parks in the area were ejected.

The letters, signed by the groups’ scribes, Dr Aremu Fagbemi and Alhaji Mohammed Kano, alleged that the piece of land was leased out to them by the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

They claimed that the Federal Government (FG) provided them the plot of land because Anambra government refused to allocate a piece of land to the traders.

The groups said the state government had no power to eject them without authority from the Federal Government since the said land still belonged to the Federal Government.

Besides, the groups said they still paid rents to the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

They also said that the alternative site provided by the state government is another Federal Government-owned land.

The groups vowed to pursue their legal right of occupancy as lawful tenants on the said plot of land, arguing that the decision to relocate them to another Federal Government owned land is ultra vires.

In his comment, Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Mike Udah, denied tribal sentiment in the action.

Udah said the revocation became necessary to properly open up the Bridge Head area of the commercial city as the gateway to Anambra and the whole of the South East.

He described Anambra Governor Peter Obi as a detribalised Nigerian who has done everything possible to carry everybody along irrespective of tribal or religious inclinations.

The governor’s aide gave an assurance that the face-off between the government and the traders would be amicably resolved.

http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=01/30/2008&qrTitle=Groups%20protest%20revocation%20of%20Onitsha%20Bridge%20head%20land&qrColumn=BUSINESS

Enugu Orders Traders To Vacate Livestock Market
By Emmanuel Nzomiwu, Reporter Enugu

Enugu State Government has ordered Hausa-Fulani traders to vacate the New Artisan Livestock Market with immediate effect, an order that has left the affected livestock dealers confused.

Commissioner for Lands, Festus Uzor, gave the vacation order less than two months after the Ministry of Environment demolished no fewer than 600 lock-up shops at the same market without paying compensation to the owners.

Daily Independent gathered that Governor Sullivan Chime's government has proposed a housing estate on the land, which was allocated to the traders in 2005 by the immediate past administration of Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, now a senator.

But the traders have appealed to Chime to rescind the proposed plan to eject them from the market without providing alternative for them, stressing that the action would bring hardship to them and their families.

Patron of the market, Alhaji Sani Muhammed, said they received the order from the Commissioner for Lands with shock, adding that the development was giving them sleepless nights.

According to him, "the massage actually baffled the entire members of this market and nobody is happy because not up to four years now we were relocated to this present market from the old artisan market by the administration of the immediate past governor of the state, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, and all the business transaction as it relates to allocation of shops were duly gazetted by that regime."

He appealed to the state government to reconsider its plan because it would bring about perpetual hardship on the traders whom he said, were yet to complete payment of the loans they took from banks to develop their shops at the market.

"We are appealing to Governor Sullivan Chime, who we know is a listening governor, to reconsider us and help us and our families by allowing us to settle here because we don't have money to start building new structures in another place," Sani stated.

Also, secretary of the livestock dealers, Umar Sadiq, wondered why government should sack them from the place, even when the shops were duly allocated to them by the past administration.

Sadiq, however, appealed to the state government to have a rethink over the plan unless they were indirectly being asked to go back to their various states. Also, leader of the Northern community in the market, Mohammed Lawan, said he was yet to believe the information.

"I still see it as a rumour until we hear from the governor himself who is a lawyer and knows the implications of quitting some one from a land where the person has legal documents," Lawan said.

Also, leader of Arewa Youth Association, Enugu State chapter, Alhaji Danladi Abubakar, declared that the order has demoralised traders at the market, urging the governor to use his good office to address the issue.

The said spaces the government have seized are not suitable for the kind of activities they are being used now.
However, its so cruel of the 2 governments (lagos included) to displace law abiding traders without providing a replacement for them.

Fashola is demolition shops and stores to make Lagos great. In the processes, Igbo businesses are amongst those affected. Other govs should be allowed to develop their own states, even if Yoruba and Hausa shops are also affected. My Gov in Rivers is doing the same.

Onitsha needs sanitizing too,it is a commercial gold mine.

If you read the article closely, you'll see that those guys in Onitsha were actually relocated to a new site which also happened to be another federal land, but they just don't like the location or had a better preference. It is unfortunate that past governors in most states in Nigeria never did any City planning, so everything is everywhere. To take the streets of Nigeria into the 21st century, something has to give. Unfortunately, average citizens in Lagos, Onitsha and now Enugu are bearing the brunt of these restructuring and it is disheartening. I hope these governments find ways of relocating or compensating some of these traders in a way that makes sense or that prevents from them from feeliing that Tribalism played a role in their quest to develop their cities.

The caption is quite tribalistic, but in reality, this ia a town planning/real estate issue. From Lagos to Kano, to Calabar, to Onitsha, to Ibadan, to Enugu and beyond, state governments are struggling to update and bring their cities to the 21st century.

redsun:

Onitsha needs sanitizing too,it is a commercial gold mine.

Quite apt observation

Nigeria bu ala nna gi, nye ya ndu na ahu ike.

ijawman=igboman.