From Paul Ibe, Enugu
The Enugu State Government says it has concluded plans to demolish a building erected by an Enugu based non-governmental organization, St. Joseph’s Institute at Independence Layout, Enugu for not possessing the necessary land documents.
The Institute, had built a storey building in the said land, adjacent to the Enugu State House of Assembly which was duly allocated to the South East zonal office of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA by Enugu state government.
Speaking with newsmen in Enugu, Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ujam stated that his office has set aside funds for demolishing the house which is at the completion stage, because they didn’t have Certificate of Occupancy
whereas the rightful owner, NEMA has the required titles.
“I don’t know if they are talking with NEMA about selling the
building but we are making efforts to pull down the structure”.
“I have approved substantial amount of money to pull it down, so we are not
shirking from our responsibility to remove illegal structures, I can
assure you that,” Dr. Ujam stated.
HOMELAND NEWS gathered that St. Joseph’s Institute equally lays claim to
the ownership of the said land and is equally in possession of their own Certificate of Occupancy for the same property from the same Enugu State Government.
It was further learnt that originally, St. Joseph’s Institute was allotted
the land but it was later revoked because the state government did not
want a non-government institution to build any structure in the area
for security reasons and subsequently re-allotted the land to NEMA
