By Dennis Agbo

THE Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, ECTDA, pursuant to its enforcement mandate, on January 19, 2024 demolished several houses and undeveloped plots at the Enugu LifeStyle and Golf City, otherwise known as Centenary City.

The estate is called ‘centenary city’ because former Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State joined the Nigeria centenary celebration alongside former President Goodluck Jonathan, who in January 2014 declared remembrance of the celebration of Nigeria’s amalgamation of the southern and northern Nigeria protectorates by the British colonial masters on January 1, 1914.

It was in that celebration that the then Enugu State Government under Chime designated the formerly conceived Anambra State University of Science and Technology, ASUTECH, permanent site at Obeagu/Amechi Awkunanaw in Enugu South Local Government Area as Centenary City.

Octogenarian Senator Jim Nwobodo, who founded ASUTECH, said that in 1982 he designated a 318 hectares of land for the purpose of bringing a university closer to his people as then Governor of old Anambra State. Nwobodo did not conclude that vision as he was sacked by the Major General Muhammadu Buhari military junta in December 1983. The ASUTECH permanent site was therefore inconclusive but the land remained.

In 2009, the Chime administration offered a developer, Private Estates International West African Limited, PEIWA, a public-Private partnership under the New Township Development Agreement to develop the City on an expanse of land covering approximately 1,097 hectares.

Nwobodo maintained that what he acquired for the purposes of the university was 318 hectares of land contrary to PEIWA annexation of 1,097 hectares of land, stating that the Anambra State of Nigeria official Gazette No. 12 vol II of 27th March 1986, which the PEIWA relies upon as a notice of revocation of Rights of Occupancy was never served on the customary owners of the land as required by the Land Use Act.

The Elder statesman also described as unreal the purported 1985 Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, survey plan (PLAN EN(A)594), stating that Enugu State was created in 1991, more so that the late Group Capt. Emeka Omeruah was the then military Governor of Anambra State and not Navy Commander Alison Madueke as the developer’s documents claim.

The Traditional Ruler of Obeagu Awkunanaw community, HRH Igwe Mike Nnukwu lamented that even his palace would be affected in the demolition exercise if the state government makes good its threat of demolishing buildings contained in the 1,097 hectares of land. The monarch said: “Some people miraculously expanded the proposed 318 hectares to become 1,097 hectares, brazenly covering even a portion of my palace – one of our traditional symbols of unity as well as other places of traditional value.”

A staff of PEIWA, Chamberlin, however said there is no discrepancy anywhere in documentation the company has in its possession, noting that there is only one acquisition file in the ministry of lands for ASUTECH and one official gazette.

“The Gazette is explicit on the size and location of the land. All these happened between 1985 and 1986. There were correspondences between the host communities. The Gazette also has the coordinates of the boundary beacons as far back as 1986. The size mentioned was 1,097 and the survey plan no was EN (A) 594. This plan number is the same that is sited in our C of O (Certificate of Occupancy).”

Chamberlin said that even though Jim Nwobodo started the ASUTECH project before he was ousted, he didn’t conclude it and the next Military Administrator continued. “We know that government is a continuum. It is even not smart to suggest that you acquired a land you neither paid compensation for nor gazetted the acquisition. There is no evidence anywhere that showed 318 hectares was the size of the acquisition,” Chamberlin said.

On the rights and privileges of the host communities, Chamberlin said that PEIWA had given compensations to Amechi-Uwani and some families in Obeagu communities and had signed documents, but that “There is a group that emerged in 2017. They called themselves The Masquerades, they are land grabbers. They are the ones orchestrating the chaos. They are doing it with some aboriginal land owners. They use cultists and have some affiliation with some rogue high ranking police officers. They entered the land from various fronts and were selling to unsuspecting public, hence this demolition.”

Perhaps, setting the records straight, the Obeagu Awkunanaw community recalled that the then Governor Jim Nwobodo commissioned for survey works pursuant to the acquisition of an estimated 318.560 hectares of land in certain kindred families in Amechi-Uwani and the Obeagu Awkunanaw communities in 1982.

“Preliminary survey was done and endorsed by the then Surveyor General, M.U.C Obi dated March 8, 1982 with Tracing No: MISC AN-53 for 318.560 hectares, but the administration of Chief Jim Nwobodo did not last beyond 1983 so he could neither complete the acquisition nor actualize the project as envisioned. This may have created the avenue for one of the greatest land heists known to modern history, as sometime in 2009, a certain Private company entered upon that same land in the name of a New Township Development Joint venture with government and began to destroy with heavy machinery, all economic trees and habitation that lay in the path of their proposed development, and in the process attempted to wrestle and forcefully take over from us a total of over 1,097 hectares of ancestral lands partly belonging to Amechi-Uwani and the other part to us, the Obeagu Awkunanaw community.

“This group of persons never cared about our interest till date. Curiously and magically, without our knowledge, the Survey Plan was re-scripted to bear PLAN No: EN (A) 594 in favour of the Enugu State University of Technology in 1985 and expanded to 1097 hectares. How come that Enugu State that was created in 1991 could acquire land and have a Survey Plan in the name and form of Enugu State University of Technology pre-1991. Again, since Enugu State was not created before 1991, why would the Plan number supposedly approved in 1985 bear initials of ‘EN’ being a state that was yet to be created as at 1985,” the community wondered.

In November 2019 the Centenary City project suffered a major setback when the state government revoked PEIWA’s right of occupancy over the land. PEIWA and the past state administration later reached a Consent Judgment in February 2023, which unequivocally recognized PEIWA as the rightful owner of the land and mandated the Government to reinstate the Master Plan of Centenary City. Subsequently, in 2023, consistent with the terms of the consent judgment, the Enugu State Capital Territory Development Authority, ECTDA, carried out demolition of disputed plots of land in the Estate.

The host communities however raised objections that their application to be joined in the suit was not granted and were therefore not carried along in the consent judgment and the communities went back to the court. While the matter was pending in Enugu state High court, the state government once again moved machines to the Centenary city on January 19 and executed the most recent demolition that has caused all the upheavals.

The state enforcement agency, ECTDA, said that its action at the Centenary City was rule of law at work, noting that its operation of Friday, January 19, was based on an intelligence report about an illegal development/property that served as kidnappers’ den at the Centenary City.

Chairman of ECTDA, Hon. Uche Anya said “we are determined to stamp out the culture of distorting Enugu municipality master plan and shall not allow any development that contravenes the law or serves as hideout for criminals. Therefore, we shall not succumb to the rule of blackmail, including recycling and trending of videos of past demolitions.”

The Enugu state Police command in its operation on the same day of demolition said that it raided a criminal hideout in the Centenary City area of Obeagu-Awkunanaw community and arrested three male suspects, with 8 pump action guns, 4 live and 26 expended cartridges, recovering other exhibits such as machete, solar-powered CCTV cameras, assorted phones, DVD player, and bags and clothes, all suspected to be stolen. “The suspects shall be arraigned in court once investigations are concluded,” the state Police spokesman, Daniel Ndukwe said.

But in its Human Rights update, the Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network, CRRAN, through its President Olu Omotayo blamed the centenary city crises on the failure of successive administrations to understand the provisions of the land use Act on acquisition of land for public purposes.

Omotayo said, “It is wrong for successive governors in the state to claim that they ceded the land to private developers, it is unlawful and illegal, and an act of executive lawlessness and rascality, because the land can only be used for public purposes for the general benefit of the citizens of the state.

“The Court of Appeal in Odusote V. Seriki held as follows: “The acquisition must be for bonafide public purposes. It is suggested that for a particular purpose to qualify as public purpose or public interest it must not be vague and the way it benefits the public at large must be capable of proof. The test is whether or not the purpose is meant to benefit the public and not just to aid the commercial transaction of a company or a group of people for their own selfish or financial purposes.”