The owner of a two-story building plaza housing a church auditorium, another two-story plaza nearly 70 percent completed and multiple shops among other structures at Naze Junction near Owerri, the Imo State capital, has cried out over the recent demolition of his property by some agents of the state government.
The aggrieved landlord, who spoke through his lawyer, Barr Lawrence Ani described the demolition as unwarranted, unlawful, brazen victimization and a calculated act of political witch-hunt by Imo state Government spareheaded by Hon. Ikenna Elezianya, a commissioner.
Ani stated that the demolished gigantic structures which cost his client a huge chunk of fortune to erect with exquisite furnishing, goods and other valuables inside, was worth over N2.2billion and the landlord and occupants of the plaza lost everything, in a matter of minutes, to the wrongful demolition.
According to him, the building was not sited in government acquired space within the area allegedly designated for the construction of the ‘City Park’ but on a portion of the compensatory plot allotted to Umuakali Naze people, by the Imo State government in 1976 during acquisition of the Naze Industrial Cluster.
His words, “The owner of the property is Engr. Bernard Nzerem from Umuakali Naze in Owerri North LGA, he acquired the property in the year 2010 from NIPEC Nigeria Limited who bought it 1982 and registered it at the Ministry of Lands in the same year.
“In 2019, the lmo State government, under Owelle Rochas Okorocha’s administration, asked him to bring his title documents which he did. The government saw the documents and informed him that the area is within the area which was left for Umuakali Naze people as compensatory plot during the acquisition of land for Naze Industrial Cluster and decided to gazette it with the name ‘Mkporo Layout Naze.’
“My client(Engr. Nzerem) was asked by the state government to apply for regularization and pay the necessary fees. He did so and the land was allocated to him as Plot C/5 Mkporo Layout Naze Compensatory Plot and he has the valid documents.
“But surprisingly and to our rude shock, on Saturday 28th June, 2025, Hon. Ikenna Elezianya in company of other government appointees, came to the the place and marked it for demolition within 7 days without any prior notice. They came to destroy the buildings on Saturday 5th July, 2025. And the demolition continued for days.”
Barr Ani argued that had the place belonged to the state government, the said piece of land wouldn’t have been acquired and registered with Ministry of Lands in 1982 by NIPEC Nigeria Limited, just as the government wouldn’t have regularized the acquisition for him in 2019 and during the process he also paid for Certificate of Occupancy, C of O.
He further disclosed that Engr. Nzerem applied for regularization with the state government on 18th January, 2019, received approval for his application on 2nd April, 2019, got allocation for the compensatory plot on 09th April, 2019, paid statutory fees for regularization, C. of O and survey plan respectively on 06th May, 2019.
He added that all the receipts are available and in the custody of Ministry of Lands and all other relevant state departments but regretted that those that came consciously ignored all the facts and evidence of lawful acquisition of the land and proceeded to demolish the magnificent edifice.
“When the building was marked for demolition in seven (7)days by Barr. Elezianya and his team, we approached the Ministry of Lands, in respect of the order but discovered that the Ministry was unaware of the demolition.
The learned counsel, on behalf of his client, therefore called on Governor Hope Uzodimma to urgently intervene and save his client from the trauma of the injustice meted to him.
He wondered why, his client, a noble elder statesman, loyal and committed member of the ruling APC should be treated with such disdain and ignominy despite the clarity and veracity of his claims over the compensatory plot.
The legal practitioner lamented that all efforts to reach the governor when the building was marked proved abortive.They claimedthat Governor Uzodimma approved the demolition.
“If government wishes to acquire a place for overriding public, government shall give adequate notice, reach out to the person for adequate compensation before carrying out any demolition, that’s the law,” he said.
Meanwhile, investigations reveal that some top government officials itching to gain possession of the highly valued strategic site are behind the unlawful demolition exercise as a ploy to displace the real allotees and re-allocate it to themselves afterwards.
