Government throws 35,000 civilians out of their homes

[Richard Akindele]

About 350,000 civilians resident in the army barracks in Port Harcourt are at a loss as to what to do over the eight-day quit order handed over to them in the wake of recent bomb explosion in the military facility

THE Nigerian Army, last week, gave a marching order to about three hundred and fifty thousand civilians residing at its 2 Brigade, Port Harcourt Barracks to vacate the place by today. The eviction notice came after the chief of army staff, Lt Gen Martin Luther Agwai, visited the place over a recent car explosion in the barracks that claimed lives and wounded several persons. This order has generated cries from the civilian residents, some of whom told Sunday Vanguard they had been living in the place since the civil war. And to ask them to relocate within days would be against the spirit of good neighbourliness. They pleaded for a minimum of six months to be able to organize themselves for the challenges of unplanned relocation.

They had reportedly mobilized for a peaceful march to Government House , Port Harcourt last Thursday to urge Governor Peter Odili to lend his voice to appeals for extension as it would not be possible to relocate within days. But they had to cancel it when they heard the governor was away in the USA for an award.

Nevertheless, a delegation reportedly left a save our soul (SOS) letter for him. The SOS signed by Malam Yahaya and Chief T.M. Ebbi captured the physical and psychological trauma many would undergo if the army goes ahead to enforce the eviction order. It also sought the intervention of President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Minister of Defence.

The letter to Odili, in part, read, "The intended hardship on the civilian populace should this order be implemented is better imagined than seen...Sending us out within a short notice of eight days spells doom for the residents in particular and Rivers State in general...Let us inform His Excellency that about (350,000) three hundred and fifty thousand people are residing in this civilian zone...And they cut across all ethnic or tribes of Nigeria and even foreigners.

"It then means that this lot of people will be rendered homeless in the city of Port Harcourt...The school calendar will resume third term shortly and our children will be thrown out of their schools having to begin again elsewhere hence losing a year. We implore all concerned, the president, minister of defence, the chief of army staff and the golden governor of Rivers State to look into this matter critically, we are pleading for more time to be able to prepare places to put our families and relocate our various businesses that are rooted in the barracks..."

Some of the residents who spoke to Sunday Vanguard off record narrated how they came to live in the barracks. They said that since the civil war was fought only in the East, the area recorded many cases of displaced persons who were later given refuge at the barracks in Port Harcourt, Enugu and Obinze, Imo State.

Mr. John (not real name) said he moved into the barracks during the war and had all his children there. He said like many others the place was the only home he had come to accept. He said he would be willing to move out but that he should be given some time to plan for the relocation. Another resident who teaches in one of the schools there said the civil war dislocated some of the residents from their ancestral families." We know some of them here who have never traveled for Christmas. This shows you that they have long lost touch with their root. We had a case of a young man who came here some time ago looking for his father. He said they told him the father moved in here during the war and has since not come back. Nevertheless, the army has said we all should go, we will, but they should give us time."

Sunday Vanguard sought to know why they did not move after peace returned to the country since they knew the refuge was a temporary one. Many of them who spoke said the army carried on in a manner that showed they wanted them to remain. Beside the cases of inter marriages between their children and army personnel, they said the army gave them land to build on in the Mammy market area. They also got involved in providing infrastructure in the place, adding that they generate close to eight million naira monthly for the army. For example, they said each room pays two hundred naira daily for pass and five hundred as electricity bill monthly while each store pays three hundred naira for pass daily and one thousand naira for electricity monthly.

They charge those with cars seventy naira daily for driving in and out of the barracks while okada riders pay fifty naira daily to operate. They said they installed three transformers in the Mammy Market area and also fenced the market. A trader said he paid thirty thousand naira for 10x10 plot to erect his stall, which he did with blocks. With all these, Musa (not real name) said it would not have been possible for them to think that the army would one day be in a hurry to ask them to leave. Some are of the view that the ejection came because the army authorities in the camp did not make the chief of army staff visit the Mammy Market area when he came to Port Harcourt last Sunday over the explosion in the barracks.

They said if he had visited the place to see the multitude he was asking to leave in days he would certainly not have given that kind of marching order. They said it was necessary for him to make another trip to the barracks to see the Mammy Market before enforcement of the order. But is it true that the army authorities sold land to these residents to build permanent structures? Is it also true that the army gave them only eight days to vacate a place some have lived for about twenty years?

Sunday Vanguard called the Army PRO, Major Musa Sagir, on phone over the issues. He said it would not have been possible to sell government property. Rather what the army did was to provide space for them to erect stores. On the eviction order, he said they were given two weeks. "The directive became necessary because the barracks had to be like every other place of its type anywhere all over the world where people do not reside in the Mammy Market. They only come to do business and go."

But, it is obvious that if this situation is not well handled, it would cause some to be refugees in their own country. Is eight days enough for these 350,000 residents to relocate? Can they raise what it takes to get even a room in an expensive city like Port Harcourt within eight days? A room apartment goes for seventy thousand. And you pay for two years. Then ten percent of the amount not deducted from what goes to the landlord is given to the house agent.

These expenses are besides what is expended at the end of the day on agreement the tenant never sets eyes on. How the military handles this situation will speak volume of its image. As at press time, there was no sign of the residents moving out. Rather they were in groups discussing the possibility of the directive.

Vanguard

[Richard Akindele]

Against the backdrop of the Nigerian Army's decision on the eviction of civilian tenants in the Second Amphibious Brigade, Bori Camp, Port-Harcourt , the evictees have called on both Rivers and Federal Governments to come to their rescue.

The Army Public Relations Officer, Major Sagir Musa had in telephone chat with THISDAY at the weekend said the ultimatum for the evacuation of the Mammy Market residents was yesterday and there would be no going back on the decision.

According to Major Musa, the decision was against a practice, which was not in line with military tradition, adding that it did not affect commercial businesses and that the place would continue to be a market.

"Nobody said the Mammy Market should be evacuated, the issue is majority of the traders in the market turn their stalls into living accommodation and we feel to do that is illegal, it is unmilitary and therefore against our traditions militarily.

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"The Commander directed that those who have turned their stalls into living accommodation should pack their beddings and family, go and look for a house elsewhere then in the morning you will come and do your business, when it is 9 in the night, we will blow whistle, you will close your shop and go out, tomorrow you will come back, in that order", he said.

Continuing, the Army Public Relations Officer said: "we gave them two weeks ultimatum and today, Monday, May 8, 2006 is the deadline and no extension would be entertained by this headquarters".

On allegation that army authorities had forbidden that the displaced people remove materials from their property they were living behind, Musa said there was no such order from the brigade office.

Source: This Day.