NGOs Drag Enugu State Gov to Court Over Demolitions
Two Non-Governmental Organisations, Registered Trustees of Law Hub Development and Advocacy Centre and Registered Trustees of Ositadimma Okoro Empowerment Foundation, have dragged the Governor of Enugu State, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, to Nsukka High Court compelling the State Government to pay damages amounting to N50 billion, as a result of the demolition of Ogige Nsukka Market by the Enugu State Government.
In the suit, which has the Governor of Enugu State and the Attorney-General of the State as Respondents, the litigants anchored their action on what they described as manifest of gross violation of the fundamental rights and planned invasion and demolition of shops of the over 10,000 traders of Ogige Market, Nsukka.
The suit, which is yet to be assigned to a Judge has the suit No. N/73/2024, is praying for a declaration that the act of the Respondents in giving the traders of Ogige Market Nsukka, 72 hours notice to vacate their properties and shops on the 22nd day of May, 2024, and the purported plan to use force to remove them and throw them out, constitutes a violation of their fundamental rights to own movable and immovable properties as guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution.
It would be recalled that the Enugu State Government, in a move said to be designed for urban renewal, demolished a wide range of properties across the State. The demolition exercise affected Our Saviour Institute of Science and Technology (OSISATECH), belonging to Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Ede; a Motherless Babies Home belonging to the Nigerian Red Cross Society, in Enugu; sections of the Ogige Market, Nsukka, and a motorpark in Gariki, Awkunanaw, Enugu.
The Plaintiffs are seeking, an order of perpetual injunction “restraining the Respondents, whether by themselves, their agents, privies or otherwise howsoever, from further harassing, intimidating, trailing, scaring away the traders of Ogige Market Nsukka, from their shops, and properties, arresting or detaining them upon the same facts constituting the complaints enumerated in this application or in any other manner infringing on the Applicants’ fundamental rights.
