The human rights advocate Mr. Osita Obi’s freshly built home has been demolished by the Anambra State government.
The duplex that was built in Awka’s Executive Business District close to the abandoned government building was torn down on Wednesday.
Obi, the person who alerted authorities to the devastation, expressed his regret at not even being informed of the planned destruction so he could remove some essential household goods.
The government had previously informed us that the area had been bought and that any homes erected there would be demolished, so my anguish is not that the house was torn down, he told reporters.
“My disappointment is that they didn’t even tell us when they intended to demolish the building, preventing us from taking some valuable stuff out of the property. Since the demolition, my wife has been in tears constantly. She hasn’t stopped crying.
“I’ve heard that the government has promised to compensate us as stated in the 2023 Appropriations Bill, but if they had alerted us beforehand, it would have lessened the shock of the destruction.
“My wife built that house; not a single Kobo of mine entered in. My wife, a retired employee of a federal government agency, utilized her retirement savings and life insurance to purchase the land and build the structure. The site was purchased in a perfectly legal manner, and the government even gave its approval to my building proposal.
“Now that they’re promising to compensate me, do they intend to murder my wife so that I can use the money they’ll give me to bury her?
“, he posed as a question.
However, it was discovered that the activist had been contacted by the Awka Capital Territory Development Agency, who had assured him that he would receive compensation for the destroyed structure.
The Anambra Keke and Shuttle Drivers Union coordinator, Comrade Osita Obi, has been at the forefront of advocating for tricycle riders in the state, including working with the government to lower the operators’ tax obligations.
He previously served as the movement’s organizer in Anambra State, where he called the Peter Obi and Willie Obiano administrations to account for failing to hold the state’s local government elections.
