As Okwuonu demolishes senator’s property
.Land belongs to me – Okwuonu
Former deputy governor of Imo State, Dr.
Ada Okwuonu weekend demolished an ongoing four-bedroom building belonging to
Senator Ifeanyi Araraume.
The house was situated at Plot 16 Clerk
Quarters, Works Layout Owerri.
It was learnt that the piece of land where the
house was located has been in dispute between the two former office holders.
When journalists visited the place, the
building was already reduced to rubble.
The former senator’s cousin, Nze Chris
Ekwueme, the former member representing Isiala Mbano State Constituency, Hon.
Jasper Ndubuaku and some tenants were seen ruing the situation while a man said
to be Mrs. Okwuonu’s aide, Hon. Uche, was seen ordering all to leave the site.
Speaking to the newsmen, Nze Ekwueme who
is the manager of Senator Araraume’s property said the property was acquired by
Senator Araraume in 2002, during the time of Chief Achike Udenwa as governor of
Imo State with all the papers including fencing permit obtained from the OCDA,
which enabled him to fence it with gate.
He said they decided to rent the place
to be used as pool office, bar and restaurant.
He added that since then, the tenants had
been staying without any trouble.
Nze Ekwueme, disclosed that they decided
last month to build four rooms self-contained apartment which had reached
roofing stage.
This, he said, attracted the officials
of OCDA(Owerri Capital Development Authority), who marked the place and asked them to report to their office for verification, adding
that the OCDA officials told them that they were building illegally on
someone’s land.
“I showed them all the papers and they
said Mrs. Okwuonu presented papers that her own land is Plot 19, but our own is
Plot 16”, he said.
He said he was suprised to be informed last Tuesday, when he was away to Benin City, by the tenants that some people were there with zone 9 police officers.
Nze Ekwueme said upon his return the
next day to the site, he was held hostage by the boys allegedly working for the
former deputy governor for four hours and later went to Umuahia where he was
released on bail.
He said before he could return to Owerri,
bulldozers has rolled over the buildings, with Hon. Emeka allegedly ordering
other boys to take away with every property and good of the tenants.
According to one of the tenants, Mrs.
Joy Nwankwo, the hoodlums took away all her drinks and damaged her fridges and
made away with about N150, 000.
Another tenant, Mr. Hyacinth Nwachukwu
who was running a bar and dog meat centre disclosed that they took away his
giant live dogs, seven gallons of palmwine, five caetons of beer and two
cartons of stout, adding that his CD sets and loudspeakers, two kegs of hot
drink and N13, 000 were stolen from him.
Speaking when he visited the place, Hon.
Ndubuaku condemned the wanton destruction of property allegedly by the former
deputy governor, warning her to retrace her steps because she was fanning the
embers of violence and brigandage in a peaceful state like Imo.
When contacted, Barr. Emperor Iwuala the
former media aide to Dr. Okwuonu submitted that the state government during
Chief Achike Udenwa’s tenure had revoked the parcel of land in dispute.
According to him, the land was later
allocated to Dr. Okwuonu.
Barr Iwuala said while the ex-deputy governor was
about developing the land, she saw structure being erected on the land.He
maintained that Dr. Okwuonu had to reclaim her property.
