Protests as Oba of Benin Demolishes 80 Properties in Edo Community …Victims Blast Govt

Matilda Omonaiye/

Thousands of homeowners took to the streets in the Ulegun community along the Benin-Abraka Road after Oba Ewuare II of Benin allegedly rolled out bulldozers to demolish their properties.

Plot after plot, the bulldozers crawled over 80 houses and other belongings worth billions of naira and threw the homeowners into the streets weeping.

Even pots of soups, medicines for the sick, and milk for babies were not spared in the onslaught as the owners were not allowed to remove their belongings from their homes.

Currently, the displaced former Ulegun landlords and landladies are taking refuge in the homes of friends and families in neighboring communities praying for justice to come quickly.

Strangely, the leader of the chiefs from the palace and Secretary to the Benin Traditional Council, Mr. Frank Irabor, had “no court order or judgment to execute such unprecedented illegality in a state where law and order reign supreme”, a source told NewsmakersNG.

NewsmakersNG also learned that the Village Head, Enogie Sunday Eghosasere Omoregie, and the chief priest of the community, Ohen Philip Uwuoroya, were adopted and brutalized in a style reminiscent of the German Gestapo Police during the Nazi regime.

According to reports on the series of events in Ulegun Village, the community’s Queen Mother, Mrs. Rose Omoregie, who gave an eyewitness account, said that “the community head was called for a meeting last Wednesday and since then, he had not returned home”.

Mrs. Omoregie said, “The Enogie inherited the land in dispute between the Ulegun Community and Ukhiri Community from his grandfather and the land belongs to the Ulegun Community and not the reigning Oba of Benin as claimed by the palace chiefs. The dispute over the land has since 1974 been settled and resolved in favor of the Ulegun community from the palace of Oba Akenzua up to the Supreme Court.”

Those affected in the demolition have also accused Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration of being complicit in the whole drama.

It was, however, gathered that the Edo State Government has facilitated the release of the Ulegun Community head and the chief priest.

One of the protesters said, “We want the injustice redressed as the Nigerian Constitution should be King in a democratic era as against the raw, unrestrained, unbridled and illegal powers of some traditional rulers and government officials.”

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