Following the demolition of buildings along the Nnewi-Owerri Road as part of an ongoing road development project, the Anambra State Government has provoked significant criticism.
The state’s Physical and Building Control Agency is in charge of the operation, which started in Nnewi on Wednesday and affected hundreds of buildings, stores, and companies. Of particular note was the partial demolition of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing’s headquarters.
While the owners were seen mourning the loss, footage from the area demonstrated how the damaged buildings were made worthless.
However, the demolition project has set off a series of responses and rebuttals from social media users, the impacted landlords, and the relevant authorities.
Others accused the authorities of bias, claiming that the perimeter fence of a church (name withheld) was purposefully left out despite the fact that it was clearly blocking a drainage channel, while the affected individuals maintained that they were not adequately informed.
One of the impacted landlords, Chief Emenike Gabriel, told our correspondent in Nnewi on Friday, “We were not properly notified about this demolition.” They didn’t do the exercise carefully enough.
Some of these structures date back more than 70 years. They claimed to have marked the buildings for demolition, but the majority of residents were unaware that their buildings were on the demolition list, and if they had, they ought to have given us advance notice to move.
Ifeanyi Okoma, the Commissioner for Works, defended the state government’s decision in a news release on Friday, stating that all impacted buildings were designated for demolition in December 2024 and that the public was fully notified.
Okoma attested that one of the structures was the Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Head Office.
“Sometime in December or January, these buildings were marked,” he stated. We are not focusing on specific people; rather, it is a general issue that is not tailored to any one person or used as a political witch hunt.
“No building along the road, including the Catholic Church, was going to be exonerated. The purpose of these roads was to relieve the traffic jams that occurred during festival seasons.
“There is no point to politicize the demolition exercise particularly that of Innoson Motors because the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo is the only governor nationwide that uses made-in-Nigeria vehicles. Chief Innoson is our man; anybody trying to create a wrong narrative about the demolition exercise does not mean well.”
Also expressing displeasure over the partial demolition of it’s head office, the Head of Corporate Communications at Innoson Group, Cornel Osigwe, on Friday, insisted there was no pre-notification notice before the demolition on Wednesday.
Osigwe disclosed that the office perimeter fence, some offices, the staircase and the company’s showroom were affected by the partial demolition.
He said, “There was no pre-notification ahead of the demolition; it came to us as a surprise. We did not know that the building itself was marked for demolition, and if it was marked, they should have given us time to relocate.
“The staff were working, and they just saw the demolition vehicle demolishing the building while work was going on.
“Some of our staff were trapped in the building; it took the efforts of our other staff to rescue those that were trapped while over 20 vehicles were also trapped.
“A day before the demolition, there was an announcement that there was going to be a demolition, and they were going to give one week for the houses that were marked for demolition to relocate.
“The company was not aware that the company was marked for demolition, and even if it was aware. There has been a public announcement that all the marked buildings have one week to relocate, but all those things were not considered.
“There were other buildings that were close to the head office and marked for demolition that were not demolished, but they came straight to our building and demolished it, making us wonder if there was another ulterior motive to it.”
He said the governor has been a great supporter of Innoson Vehicle, and Innoson has been a great supporter of the state government, adding, “But the way and manner that everything happened makes us wonder if the state government is aware that those handling the demolition have a personal vendetta against the company.”
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