Wike under fire over demolition of waterside communities

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Condemnations have trailed recent ejection of residents from more than 10 waterfront communities in Diobu, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital by Governor Nyesom Wike led Rivers State Government.

Leading the condemnation of the action was former Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside who described the forceful ejection as “wicked, evil and inhuman,”.

Dakuku, who described the action against the residents as callous said the governor treated the waterfront occupants with cruelty as there was no lawful quit notice issued to them or any compensation paid.

“This commando-style of doing things always adopted by Wike has become the hallmark of his administration and its legacy,” he stressed.

He added that Wike’s action against the waterfront residents is against all Universal Laws and Conventions on Human Rights and Habitation, including the United Nations Human Settlement Programme, UN-Habitat, United Nations Housing Rights Programme, UNHRP, the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Nigeria’s Policy on Housing.

The former Rivers governorship candidate stressed that shelter was a right and fundamental to the welfare, survival and health of man.

“For Wike, who, in the over six years of his regime, was unable to provide any sort of housing programme for Rivers residents, to sack them from the little they had, shows how he holds Rivers’ poor population in disdain.

“Some of the residents of those demolished areas, most of whom are Rivers people, had lived there for over forty years.

“His actions have dislocated many families and ruined their economic survival, throwing them into the worst form of poverty. Gov. Wike’s action has created more nuisance than sanity or security,” he stated.

Peterside said the urban renewal programme of the Rivers State government such should follow due process with human face.

“I totally support urban renewal but it should follow due process that will respect human dignity and inflict minimal pains on the people.

“A responsible government would plan with inputs from all critical stakeholders, reach an understanding with residents of the affected areas on a workable timeline, and pay necessary financial compensation to cushion the effects of consequential migration.

“Rivers people do not know the vision and development goals of the Wike administration for waterfront development other than primitive acquisition of land for the governor and his cronies” said Dakuku.

He challenged Wike to make public his development plans for those sacked at the waterfront settlements if he had any.

“Knowing Wike too well, he has no development plans for them. If he didn’t have any development plan for Rivers State since 2015, is it now that he is engulfed in the politics of his 2023 ambition that he would have development plan?

“The use of the left hand is not learnt in old age. By May this year, Wike would have spent 7 years in office but with absolutely nothing to show of how he has helped lift Rivers people out of poverty, or how he has helped Rivers youth develop themselves.

“Those sacked waterfront residents should not forget Wike’s wickedness against them and repay him and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, come 2023,” he added.

In the same vein, Henry Ekine, a human rights crusader and national legal adviser to Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, has decried demolition and displacement of poor citizens, including women, children, disadvantaged persons, the aged, persons with challenging health conditions from their settlements in some parts of Port Harcourt as illegal and inhuman treatment against the hapless poor.

Ekine enumerated areas that in six years of his administration, Wike has demolished “Slaughter, Nkpogu, trailer park at Eleme and most recently at Iluoabuchi and neighbouring settlements, without sufficient notice by Rivers State Government causing avoidable homelessness of hundreds of households and thousands of Internally Displaced Persons without alternative accommodation or IDP camps, no relief and no compensation.

“This despotic, unlawful, illegal, unconstitutional act of the Government of Rivers State, in a supposed civil democratic society, is a gross violation of the rights of citizens to adequate housing, right to education, right to privacy, right to life, etc”

Also in a press statement signed by its chairman, Gift Otonnah, Diobu Chiefs and Elders Forum condemned the ongoing demolition of buildings at the Illuoabuchi waterfront by the Rivers state government.

The Forum described the demolition and displacement of the people as wicked, direct attack on the non-indigenes in Diobu and insensitivity of the perpetrators on the poor mass.

The Diobu chiefs & Elder also claimed that Iloubuchi waterfront, like Ikokwu spare parts area is being demolished for for allegedly being the stronghold of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Port Harcourt (phalga)3, and not because of the shanties erected there.

“We call on those affected by this wickedness in governance, including other residents and voters in Diobu area of Port Harcourt to come out and condemn this act with their PVC come 2023 elections.

“The people of Diobu must not allow these type of leaders again, to avoid being pushed out to the street.