The Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, ECTDA, on Monday, dismissed the claims/allegations by one Mr. Anthony Njoku that his properties were demolished without following the law stressing that the development control activities the agency carried out at Works Layout, GRA, within the State capital followed due process.
A certain Anthony Njoku, the agency narrated, had in a video which is trending on social media, accused the ECTDA of causing him grievous harms amounting to N700m in the discharge of their duties.
He also alleged to have presented all the approvals given to him to erect the building to the Agency before the demolition was done.
But Mr. Josef Onoh, the Chairman of ECTDA, in his address to journalists in his office on Monday dismissed all the claims disclosing that the demolished structures had no approval and were erected on power transmission line and waterway.
Addressing the claim by Mr. Njoku that no notice was given before the demolition, Mr. Onoh said: “on the 31st day of December, 2020 on page 9 of the vanguard newspaper made a publication which served as a public notice to everyone and in item 3 on the publication, the agency warned that all the developments obstructing water ways, access roads, public utilities and other related matters shall be demolished. The publication was meant for the general public and put them on notice.”
Speaking further on the efforts made by the Agency before the demolition Onoh said: “On the 14th day of October, 2020, the agency issued a notice requesting for approval, the building plan, survey plans and tittle documents from one Mr. Okechukwu Aneke who owned plot 17 layout. A violation notice was also issued on the same date.
“It is also important to note that after that, where was no submission to this agency. In line with the law establishing the Agency, once the agency writes, the person has 14 days to respond, failing which we will do the needful and the cost of doing so will be borne by the violator.
“Then again, on 12th day of November, 2020, a demolition notice was served and pasted on plot 17 and also other relevant plots, including the former MAN Petrol, which has an eatery by the side. The first demolition occurred on that waterway and he complied.
“It is also important to note that the Plot 17 was not registered in the name of the said character, Mr. Anthony Njoku as the property has already been sold to someone else, Okechukwu Aneke, who we were told was not in the country and who we met on the day of the exercise.”
He disclosed that the Agency has received various requests by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN asking them to as a matter of urgency, remove all structures under their transmission poles. He further said that “Enugu State is one of the greatest violators of the national transmission line which requires a minimum of 22.5 metres set back which resulted to vast lands being under the transmission lines and people have actually resorted to using it for trading, some are erecting structures, stalls, houses but it is not about flouting the law, it is about what time the law will catch up with you, and in that aspect, we owe no apology in the discharge of our duties because it’s discharged without sentiment, without the intent to politicise or personal vendetta on any person.”
Onoh maintained that “the purported, orchestrated trending video on social media was designed to attract pubic sympathy, by giving the public false information.”
He also pointed out that under the master plan, there’s no plot 17 extension as claimed by Mr. Njoku as at the time the Agency carried out the exercise and the information they were given at the scene was entirely different from what is being claimed.
“Its also pertinent to note that what I was given on the scene stated plot 16A and when I pointed it out to the current owner, he assured me he had his approval but the approval I was given showed 16A. I’m also surprised and shocked that when I asked for submissions, I automatically found another approval in the name of Mr. Tony Njoku saying plot 17 Works layout and it was obtained in 2003 and in 2003, what was approved was for a bungalow which clearly show the full setback from the National Transmission line.
“He was given approval to build this bungalow with a sub basement but as at the time we went for the development control exercise, what we saw that didn’t observe the approved standard set back of the transmission line as evidence in the pictures was a duplex and it wasn’t the same approval.
“We want to state that in the cause of doing this duty, the law states that you give us an approval, if you have one, your property stays. Sentiments aside, what we met on the ground was not what was approved and total invariance with the layout plans” warning that “its not business as usual.”
Going further, Onoh stressed that Mr. Njoku’s claim of owning plot 17 extension in that layout can’t be verified following his submissions to the Agency and what was even found in the property was a factory which he had no approval for.
“In the plot 17 extension which he dropped off and ran away and avoided all calls from this agency to come and clarify to us how come he has a plot 17 extension and what was minuted there was for a bungalow and it wasn’t approved, it was only signed received in 2006 and we are shocked to actually get from his submission that he acquired plot 17 extension in 2007. I wonder how its possible, someone was able to acquire and apply for a building permit which was never approved because the verifying officers found out that the building was directly under a transmission line. So it’s safe to say he has no approval whatsoever.
“During the day of the exercise, what we found there was a factory. He had no title for industrial or agricultural use on that land and however he may have acquired the land, the purported plot 17 extension I do not know.
