The Enugu State government in Southeast Nigeria has denied allegations of demolitions and forced evictions of residents of Nchatancha Nike, one of many communities impacted by the ongoing construction of New Enugu City, a smart city inaugurated by Governor Peter Mbah in October 2023.
Today, I flagged off the construction of New Enugu City roads made up of 17km dual carriageway and feeder roads, 40km Owo-Ubahu-Amankanu-Neke-Ikem dual carriageway, and the construction/reconstruction of 71 urban roads in Enugu capital city.
The 71 urban roads would be… pic.twitter.com/HreKla9pHi
— Peter Ndubuisi Mbah (@PNMbah) October 12, 2023
The state government also said that although affected communities were already served years ago when the land acquisitions began by previous governments, the Governor Peter Mbah administration was approaching the mega project with a human face by ensuring that compensations and proper relocations were done before any demolitions.
Meanwhile, there have been pockets of protests by natives of the Nchatancha community who claimed that the government was taking more land than the community had given out, but the government has blamed the protests and disturbances, including the Monday attack where some persons attempted to set a D6 bulldozer on fire at the construction site, on land grabbers who sell portions of the already acquired and gazetted lands to unsuspected buyers, saying that some culprits have already been arrested by the police.
The Secretary to Enugu State State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, made the clarifications on Monday during a site visit with journalists at Nchatancha Nike over an attack on a bulldozer, vowing that the government would not be deterred in its determination to actualize the first phase of the New City in 24 months, as already agreed with the China Communication Construction Company, CCCC, in October.
He said that the governor, who already had a series of conversations and buy-in from the communities ahead and in the course of the project, had ordered the contractors to begin 24-hour construction work.
Addressing journalists at the site, Prof. Onyia explained: “What we have discovered is that a few 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.
“But I think we need to step back and answer the questions about when this process started. The first acquisition process started long before this government came. People were served notice many years ago that there would be a day like this when a government would decide that it was now time to actualize the promise to build a new city.
“But in doing that, what the governor decided would happen first was 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.
“Furthermore, we have also told those who have active farmlands in those areas to please send us a claim based on clear calculations. We have not received any information yet.
“So, there’s no clear justification for escalation to protest or the attack on machines here. We have a process that we are waiting to address.”
On proper relocation of indigenes of the affected Nchatancha community, he said: “The plan to relocate the affected community was built-in by the current governor, as it wasn’t originally built into the process since they were given advance notice to move.
“So, we actually have our plans to compensate them, and we have also built plans to relocate them to an area that will have the right type of infrastructure. The smart school will be located there, a primary health care facility is going to be located there, and they are setting out the roads around there even right now. Their farmlands have been equally factored into those relocation plans.
“Therefore, it is not something we are doing without a human heart. The governor is the father of the state, and he is a critical thinker. These things have been thought through by his technical team with him in leadership,” he stated.
Onyia, however, warned property buyers to do their due diligence so as not to be defrauded by people, who were selling the same land acquired and gazetted by the government long ago.
