For 8 Years I Have Been Denied Access To My House, Something Must Be Wrong With Our Urban Planning – Ambakederimo

Mr. Joseph Ambakederimo is the Executive Director, Nigeria Rebirth Initiative (NRI). In this interview with Tejiri Ebikeme and Francis Sadhere, he said that something is wrong with the Delta State Government Urban Planning and it is time to overhaul it now. Certainly Mr. Ambakederimo is not a happy man because for eight years after the completion of his house close to the Delta State Government Office, Annex in Edjeba, Warri South Local Government Area of the state. He is being denied access to his house by another property developer, Mr. Andrew Anigala. Ambakederimo said himself and another property owner in the area, Mr. Joseph Ajuwa, have been having a running battle with Mr. Anigala and called on the state government to urgently intervene. Excerpts:

We were at the police station a short while ago, please tell us what was the resolution taken by the police?

At the moment no resolution has taken place. I insisted that we all go there and see what he is doing because he has petitioned to the police that I was the one who threatened his life. Whereas he was the one who came to my house with thugs and one of them is a known arsonist, who threatened to burn my house. This boy has a record of burning people’s houses and I can get the record of the conversation from MTN. at the appropriate time I am going to bring up that matter. This is not just an ordinary threat because he threatened to burn down my house and the next day he came in with his boys to destroy my property. So right now I am not safe if I go to that house.

The police got to the site and they saw for themselves what he has done and they asked us to come back the next day. I told them that I cannot go there tomorrow because I am a very busy person because it is on a Wednesday. I told them that they can do their reports overnight and give it to their area commander.

Meanwhile before then I told them my position and I told them in my statement that we got up to the point of settlement out of court based on the intervention of the community chairman  one Mr. Marcus Odoyo. We attended a meeting in his house and it was agreed that some funds will be paid to Mr. Anigala which he agreed and we all departed on a good note and shock our hands and he left but only for him to request for 3 million. Of course we did not accept and we offered him five hundred thousand only for the chairman to say we should pay him two million. I then asked the chairman what was his interest in the matter because he was the one that is now deciding. When the chairman said Uncle Joe, go and bring two million that was when I became suspicious. I was even expecting Mr. Anigala to come to us and ask us how much we are willing to pay him but he did not do that. We were ready to settle this issue until he came up with the petition of threat to life which the police said they will treat on it merit because it a different matter entirely. So I was granted bail before we went to the site.

The point we got to in the station was that there is still the possibility for us to talk with Mr. Anigala. But again the ball is in his court if he tries to be reasonable in his demands. It is not that we want to do this for him illegally. We are only trying to cushion his loss out of human sympathy and not because we want him out of the site. In the same vain there is no reasonable engineer or town planner that can approve that site for anybody. One, he has blocked our access. Two, the environmental nuisance he is causing already on the road because as we speak now the entire government house annex is in danger as we speak. The whole place is in danger of being submerged during heavy rains because he has blocked the only drainage. And again I tried speaking to him one on one because I discovered that any third party that comes in was trying to worsen the issue. So I told him to give me his number, which he refused initially, but one officer told him to give me his number and try to make peace with me. I even told him that when my other neighbor, Mr. Joe comes back, the three of us will come back to the police station and talk like men and resolved this issue. I told him that the ball still lies on his court. So I told him that I will call him so that we can meet before we go back to the station again. They asked us to provide the layout plan of both houses. I made them to understand that the matter is in court already. I told Mr. Anigala that it pains me in the heart to see him wasting money. I told the police men that this man brought soldiers to the sight but when they saw what was going on in the sight they left in anger. I know that he must have paid them money. A lot of the things he is doing there right now he is spending money to do and I asked him if he is so rich that he does not know what to do with money. I told him, Mr. Anigala come down from your high horse and let us talk. The police men agreed that there is room for dialogue to settle the matter. Before then I did not even know that his own lawyer has even called him and told him to settle the matter and let everybody go home and rest. So as it stands now we are going to meet again. For me I want to call him so that we can sit down and talk. To be honest with you if the man comes to me and say we should up the amount we offered him, we can do that just for everybody to go their different ways. I told him at the police station that if he wants to judge this case he will not build the house again and he will run at a loss because by then I will not give him any money again.

So what is your prayer in this matter?

My prayer is for him to see reasons, but if he does not want to see reasons we will go back to the hurdle of legal process again. His actions has infringed on my right because as a property owner in that estate he has denied me access to my house. The owner of the land who sold to me and Joe that house showed us that part of land as road that is leading to our houses and they have gone to tell Mr. Anigala that the Late Dr. Urhobo who sold the land to him does not have any plot of land in that vicinity.

Now for the past 8 years you have not moved into your house, how do you feel right now?

Of course I feel very disappointed at our town planners town because they have already told him that the plan that was given to him was a deceitful approval and that his house was illegal. They came and demolished the man’s house on the 5th of April 2013. Now Mr. Anigala is now going about with a document that the state government has asked him to go and rebuild. On what basis are they now asking him to go and rebuild? Is that place now 20/30 standard plot of land to be built upon and block people access, free flow of water and block an access road as earmarked by the government since the regime of Chief James Ibori? What has now changed that they are asking him to go and rebuild. Like I said before, my position is that if that house is allowed to stand by the state government, then there is a question mark on the demolition carried out recently by the state government. And government has no justification so far, to demolish anybody’s house in Delta State as a whole.

Now let us talk about the legal aspect where he petitioned you to police that you threatened his life!

There are always two sides to any issue  civil and criminal. Agreed, that there is a petition on threat to life and all that. But again I put it to him that the people he brought to destroy my property are known arsonists. They have been detained at police stations and taken to prison. At the appropriate time I will also do my petition and petition them to the commissioner of police and they will be brought to book. The allegation he is laying on me right is false and at the end of the day if the police found out that false allegation, of course I am going to file charges for character defamation. The house cannot be allowed to stand. We must follow environmental laws, town planning laws because the laws are there for us to work with. There must be no intervention. We must stop impunity. He even has a stop order from the state and he is still building. Who is he trying to blackmail? You cannot eat your cake and have it, it is not possible. So even when they say they should pay compensation to him, he should not be paid compensation because he does not deserve compensation and I will fight it because that is not how to use tax payers money. The fact is that if he had stopped building, they will not come to demolish the house. But because he did not stop building that was why they came and demolished his house because the building of that house contravenes the laws of the state.