Chinedum Treasure
Counsel to UPJA Joist and Plank Traders, Bridgehead Onitsha, Anambra State, Chief Iloegbune Okoye has called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo, to prevail on chairman of Onitsha South Local Government Area of the State, Chief Emeka Orji, from demolishing the shops of his clients.
Okoye’s call was sequel to a notice from the Local Government that it would demolish “illegal and obstructive structures in and around Onitsha South Local Government Area”.
In the notice tagged ” Final Notice of Demolition” and signed by the Secretary of the Local Government, Paul Onuachalla, the LG warned: Please note that Building Certificates of Occupancy, approvals etc may not always be a good alibi/defence in certain circumstances”
The notice with reference number OSLG/AD/CH/198 and dated December 23, 2024, went on to advise owners or occupiers to remove their goods or any other valuables before embarking on Christmas vacation.
But in a reaction to the notice, Counsel to the UPJA traders, Chief Okoye called on Governor Soludo to prevail on the chairman and his people from demolishing his clients’ shops.
He said the UPJA traders are peace loving and that is why they dragged Orji to Court when he pulled down their plaza worth over N500m, the case which has the suit number:NO:0335/2023 which he said is still pending in the High court.
The lawyer said since they instituted the case, Orji had made attempts to demolish his clients’ shops, which led to an order by Justice Onyefulu asking the parties to stay calm pending the determination of the matter after he had filed a motion for interlocutory injunction.
He said the import of the order was that his client should not build, while Onitsha South Local Government should not demolish anything.
Okoye said: “We are surprised that the order not withstanding, with the matter still in court, my clients have continued to receive threats of demolition. Onitsha South is making cladestine move to move inside the market during this Christmas holidays to demolish their shops”.
He said out of courtesy he called the Local Government chairman who insisted that they would destroy the shops .
Okoye said he has also gone out of his way to call his colleague, the defence counsel in the case they instituted against Orji and the Attorney General of the State who is also a party in the matter.
The lawyer said he has done all this to show that his clients are peace loving, stressing that there is no law that allowed Orji to wake up and start demolishing people’s shops valid court order.
“Demolition of illegal structures is not within the ampit of Local Government chairman. It is within the ampit of town planning authority”, Okoye said, accusing Orji of having ulterior motive in his planned demolition.
Okoye said: ‘We were reliably informed that all this shananigans is aimed at reclaiming some portions of land in the market where he want to build personal plazas.And I want to tell him it would not work.The Governor should be aware of this pending danger at the Bridgehead market’ said Okoye who was former chairman of Nigeria Bar. Association (NBA), Aguata Branch.
When contacted on phone, Secretary to the Local Government who signed the notice of demolition said the area marked for demolition is not part of the UPJA market open space or subject of litigation in any court in Nigeria,a claim Okoye stoutly disputed.
Onuachalla vowed that their leadership at the Local Government would not be blackmailed into submission.
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