BY NWABUEZE OKONKWO,ONITSHA
THE land dispute between Pastor Sylvester Agu of Adonai Synagogue Church of Nigeria, Onitsha branch and Managing Director of Best Aluminium Manufacturing Company, BAMCO Limited, Chief Pius Nweke, assumed an alarming climax at the weekend, following the demolition of Pastor Agu’s residential house at the GRA, Onitsha, Anambra State, by the agents of Chief Nweke.

Some of his household effects thrown outside during the operation

Some vigilante operatives, court officials and a policeman led by Nweke’s agents had stormed Agu’s compound at Plot 16/17 Extension to Magazine Layout, GRA, Onitsha at about 7.30 a.m. and allegedly pulled down Agu’s three-room apartment and a kitchen, thus rendering him and his entire family members homeless.

The demolition exercise, according to sources, was the second of its kind. The first was on Saturday, December 21, 2013 when only Nweke’s agents stormed Agu’s premises at about 7 am and allegedly demolished the building, after some policemen earlier swooped on his premises at about 5 am, searched all nooks and crannies for incriminating objects but could not find any.

It was gathered that even when the policemen did not find any weapon or incriminating object on him, they still whisked him off to Area Command Headquarters, Onitsha for interrogation and detention, based on an alleged petition to the police by Nweke that Agu is a suspected leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB.

It was gathered that after the demolition exercise, Pastor Agu rebuilt the house some days later and continued residing in it, while waiting for a Certificate of Occupancy, C of O, which he said he is still processing at the Anambra State Ministry of Lands, Survey and Urban Development.

But last weekend, while still waiting for the C of O which he said had reached an advanced stage at the ministry, a combined team of a policeman, vigilance operatives and others who identified themselves as court officials numbering up to 15 entered the compound and allegedly pulled down the structures there, after moving the Pastor’s house-hold effects outside.

Reacting to the development, Agu told newsmen inside the premises that they came with a certified true copy of a court order as a warrant to carry out the demolition exercise, adding that they equally destroyed his electronic gadgets and poultry farm housing about 200 birds, killed so many of the birds and allowed others to fly away.

Pastor Agu’s residential apartment pulled down by an eviction team

He further disclosed that he was yet to recover from the demolition of his house, when they re-appeared the next morning and carted away the zincs of the demolished house which he had used to cover some of the house-hold items against rain fall, adding that two days after, they came back and commenced erection of a fence round the land.

According to him: “I bought the land in 2007 from Justice Francis Nwokedi (retd), a prominent Onitsha indigene and one-time Chief Judge of the old Anambra State who issued me with a genuine document of ownership. When I went to the Ministry of Lands, they verified and assured me that the land was vacant and had not been allocated to any one else and the officials even advised me to apply for a Certificate of Occupancy which I did and which they are processing for me at the moment”.

He argued that Nweke could not have acquired the land since 1999 as claimed because if he did, he would have seen me moving into the compound in 2007 when I acquired the land.
He, however, noted that he had gone to the Ministry at Awka and alerted the officials who directed him to write a petition and forward to them so that they would commence investigations into the matter with a view to ascertaining the true position on the matter.

He also noted that he had reported the matter to both the Central Police Station, CPS, Onitsha and Area Command Headquarters, for prompt action, even as he expressed disappointment with the lukewarm attitude of the police so far in the matter.

The Police Area Commander for Onitsha, Mr. Benjamin Wordu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP who spoke to newsmen in a telephone chat,  said Nweke’s group initially brought the court document to his office for assistance but he refused and asked them to go and get a written permission from the state Commissioner of Police, adding that they had just come back with the  CP’s written authority.

Demolition exercise
He, however, denied assigning any policeman to assist the court officials or the Nweke group, adding that the policeman who accompanied them to the demolition exercise was not sent by him. Meanwhile, the Onitsha zone of Anambra State Urban Development Board, ASUDEB had visited the compound and ordered a stop-work on the erection of the fence.

The stop-work order followed a directive from the Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Lands, Survey and Urban Development, Mr. Douglas Mba and some other officials of the ministry when they visited  the scene on the invitation of Pastor Agu. Mba and his team had visited the scene, asked some questions and directed Onitsha Zonal ASUDEB to stop the Nweke group from erecting the fence, pending the the outcome of investigations by the ministry as to who is the actual owner of the land.

In his own reaction, Chief Nweke told newsmen that he acquired the land as far back as 1999 from one Joshua Daniel who the land was allotted to by a one-time Military Administrator of Anambra State, Group Captain Rufai Garba.

He said Joshua Daniel issued him with a Power of Attorney in 1999 with a Survey Plan No. ANO (A) 176 tracing No. ANS-N-448, adding that he would have developed the land since then, but for the blockage of a track road leading into the compound. He explained that the only entrance road leading to the compound was blocked by a fence built by Justice Joe Iguh (retd) and all his efforts to persuade Iguh to remove a portion of the fence to enable him create an access road to the compound proved abortive as Iguh refused to obliged him, until such a time when the Ministry officials intervened and demolished Iguh’s fence.

Nweke recalled that when the ministry demolished Igu’s fence for the  first time, he re-erected it, but for the second time, the ministry demolished it and he now came for negotiations which entailed him (Nweke) having to pay for the carving out of the entrance road and to repay Iguh for the demolished fence and gate.

He said he spent over N3 million for this purpose  before the entrance road to his own land was then created in 2013. He added that it was after the creation of the entrance road to the compound, last year, that he discovered that an illegal squatter in the person of Pastor Agu was residing inside the compound in a thatched house.

Alternative residence
He said he had sent his agents to approach Agu several times since that 2013 to find an alternative residence for himself and vacate his land but he would not listen, which prompted his decision to obtain a court order to throw him out.
He, however, admitted that the ministry officials have intervened in the matter and asked both parties to produce their documents with which they are basing their claims to the ownership of the land.

Insisting that it was the lack of entrance road that prevented him from  developing the land over the years, Nweke advised Agu to beware of con men who pose as ministry officials and who are extorting him in the name of processing a C of O for him, adding that he should quietly park his belongings and leave the premises as he (Nweke) is determined to assume rightful ownership of the land.