By Onyekachi Eze
The State Director of Niger Delta Grassroot women (NDGN) who hails from Oguta Local Government Area, Imo State, Princess Chinwe Njoku has cried to the State government led by Owelle Rochas Okorocha and the State Police command over the illegal demolition of her POWA shops at Owerri/Onitsha express road, adjacent to Arugo motor Park Owerri by the men of Owerri Capital Development Authority (OCDA).
Narrating her ordeals to newsmen shortly after the demolition last Tuesday, Princess Njoku lamented that the property allegedly worth forty million naira (N40million) which was pulled down by OCDA was a deliberate act of helping one Businessman to recover his property which was seized during the time of Otokoto saga, accusing OCDA of collecting N1 million before executing the job in favour of the man to intimidate her relinquish the property by using a government machinery.
She informed journalists that OCDA moved to demolish her shop without notice as required wondering why such demolition should be hasty and targeted only at her shop which she claimed was legitimately acquired from the Nigerian Police, signed by the IG of Police, sir Mike Okiro, adding that her property was approved for POWA around 2004\2005 by the IG Okiro to enable POWA build Clinic and school, while the Imo State govt also gave its own approval by issuing all the relevant documents including the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).
Furthermore, Princess Njoku said POWA was using the said property until 2012 when a man allegedly came with some documents claiming that former governor Ohakim re-allocated the property to him stressing that there was never a time she was served with any court order or notice to quite the property before OCDA bulldozed the property. She disclosed that while away from the state, her husband, a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police called to inform her of the 48 hours given to them to park out of the property by OCDA.
However, she lamented on the brutality meted out on some of the family members including the husband who she said is lying critically ill in the hospital as a result of the action of the OCDA and the suspected thugs they came with, and called on the government for prompt intervention on the case.
