Right activist threatens to sue RSG over eviction notice to residents of govt property

The Rivers State coordinator of the International Human Rights Protection Initiatives, Mr. John Ihua, has threatened to sue the state government to court if the government carried out its plan to forcefully evict the residents of Ahiamakara in the Ogbun na Abali axis of Port Harcourt without adequately compensating them.

Mr. Ihua, therefore, called on the government to apply the rule of law to protect the rights of its citizens by paying compensation to the affected property owners in the area or leave them with no option than to seek redress from the courts of the land.

He said: “All we are saying is that the government of Rivers State should pay the people before evicting them from their places because the law that gave the Rivers state government the right to demolish and take possession of their land is equally the right that also prevents them from not evicting the people without payment.

“The people are crying for what they are passing through and we say it without remorse that enough is enough because a lot of places that were demolished by government and then taken over by government, government have not built anything on those lands. People are being rendered homeless.

Property owners and residents of Ahiamakara of Ogbun na Abali were yesterday asked to quit or face forceful eviction by the Rivers state ministry of Lands and Survey.

In a statement signed by the permanent secretary of the ministry, Mr. Williams Jack, disclosed that the government had acquired the said land and was then ready for reclamation and reconstruction.

However a cross section of landlords at Aiamakara alleged that they were yet to be compensated before the eviction notice.
One of the victims said: “My husband built that house before he died. So let them compensate us before we leave.

Another said: “We are demanding for the compensation to empower us to look for other residential areas. We are almost stranded. Most of us have packed our loads even to uncompleted buildings. How can we leave Ahiamakara without any destination to go? It is unfair.

“We are still taking the details of the houses scattered in Ahiamakara. But surprising to us they just brought quit notice. We then called the man in charge. He told us that government said they were going to pay after demolition. We say we don’t accept that because without this compensation we don’t have any money to go to another place,” yet another property owner in the area lamented.