Few weeks after an estate worth of N10 billion was demolished in Abuja by the Federal Capital Territory, another estate worth N3 billion was on Friday demolished allegedly on the orders of the Minister Nyesom Wike in Maitama Hills, Mpape in Bwari Area Council of Abuja.
The taskforce sent to demolish the estate refused journalists to have access to the estate, stating clearly it was directives from FCT.
However, speaking to journalists, the manager of the estate that was under construction, Eze Innocent Okpara said, “This is our estate, we started developing it around 2019 and already the structures on ground were 3 units completed and 4 units decked, we have 3 units that we are still decking and then the DpC for the plaza completed.
I am surprised that the structure is in being demolished.
“It is Woodcrest Estate and they have refused us entrance. We wanted to see what they were actually doing but they wouldn’t allow us to see what is happening but from what I am seeing from here the structure we completed is on ground. They have demolished it, the carcasses everything is down and they will not allow us to remove anything. We have household materials we have chairs inside one of the unit.”
“The estate is 11000square meters in Mpape 2, maitama hills.
Asked if there was any court case on the property, Okpara said, “Yes, there was a court case before this demolition. They came to mark the structure sometimes back, we refered them to our Lawyer that whatever they needed are pasted on the wall and the case is still on and to our greatest surprise they are coming for demolition today.”
On who instituted the case, the Manager said, “One Majin. He is in contention with my boss over the land.
Speaking to the counsel of the developer, Tony Ogbulafor, he said the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) should call the Minister of FCT to order.
According to him, Wike could not claim to be a lawyer and he is embarrassing the judiciary.
Ogbulafor said the case is in court and was adjourned to May 15, 2024 as the claimant was absent in court on November 15, 2023.
According to him, Hon. Justice A.S. Adepoju Court No.13, Gwagwalada Judicial Division had ruled on October 18, 2023 that the status quo should remain.
Speaking to journalists, Ogbulafor said, “We pasted the approval of the building plan on the wall, for them to see that something like that is there
“I am the lawyer to the owners of the estate
“I got a call from the Managing director of Toub Associate, it was alleged that some demolition was going on and he called me to the estate to see what was going on. On getting here policemen and NSCDC men over 100 blocked us from entry saying they are a joint tax force they don’t allow anybody to come close that we can only come in when the demolition is completed. Because they are wielding gun we have to pipe low
Asked if there was any case in court, he said, “One Majin Nigeria Limited took Toub associates, the minister of FCT and FG to court alleging ownership of the land and we are in court, the court ordered that nobody should do anything on the land until the case is determined before we got this morning. Along the line we have provided all the documents for the land, the allocation letters and everything to show the ownership of the land. And that has not been controverted even by Majin.
“Court 13 Gwagwalada gave the order presided over by Justice Adepoju.since the order was given did your client work on the land. Based on the order of the Court which said we should not do anything that is why we stopped, if not, we would have completed the estate but the court order said we should stop, pending the determination of the matter and we were holding action. “
Ogbulafor also reported that the Manager alleged that the taskforce team after demolishing looted somethings from the demolished buildings.
