The Nation Newspaper

Tag: destroyed

  • Who destroyed Asaba Sports Club?

    The Asaba Sports Club, established in 1864, was a simple, cream bungalow with brown trimmings. What it lacked in architectural grandeur, it compensated for adequately in its rich historical antecedents. Its well-manicured lawns and the giant mango trees dotting its expansive grounds create a wholesome counterpoint to the bustling Asaba city. Its scenic view of the ancient River Niger in its lazy southward course was alluring and picturesque.

    All that is no more; the club house lies in ruins. Consigned to the dustbin of history is its revered, time honoured traditions and practices. The 150-year-old recreation centre was on November 5, 2011 brought down and the clubhouse flattened. The destruction was like a scene from Apocalypse.

    The once-revered Mecca of sporting activities is in the news, not for sporting reasons, but the subject of a tripartite legal battle between a Lagos-based businessman, Dr John Jedeowon, the Umuezei community of Asaba and the Delta State government.

    Asaba Sports Club, founded by Capt E. C Scott, District Officer and host of several sporting tournaments from the colonial era, is no more. Unknown persons with earthmoving equipment rumbled through its hallowed grounds, reducing it to rumbles.

     

    Genesis

     

    It all began in 1998 when New Millennium Investment Limited, owned by Dr. Jedeowon, purportedly purchased a parcel of land from UAC. The Umuezei community went to court to stop the sale, stating that the land leasehold had expired.

    Mr. Obi Adimkpaya, image-maker of the Asaba Sports Club, said the club predated the UAC lease from the community, whose agreement was drawn in 1896. He cited a copy of agreement contained in the Nigeria Transfer Ordinance Cap 8486 to back his assertion.

    According to Adimkpaya, as at 1998 when the UAC allegedly sold the land to Dr Jedeowon, the 99-year lease had expired. He said the attempted sale was scuttled when the Umuezei community got an interim injunction from the Federal High Court. The late Justice Akin Boko restrained the UAC from selling the land.

    Adimkpaya said the Umuezei community permitted the club to remain on the land. He added that efforts by the New Millennium Investment Limited to get a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) from the Ministry of Lands, Surveys and Urban Development was scuttled by an objection by the club’s solicitors, Azinge & Azinge.

    But the drama assumed a new twist at about 7:30pm on November 3, 2011 when a black Sports Utility Vehice (SUV) drove into the club premises.

    Adimkpaya recalled: “I rushed to the scene after the security man called me. I made an unsuccessful call to the then Delta Police Commissioner, Mr. Mamman Tsafe, to inform him of the goings-on. A large contingent of policemen stormed the club at 5.30 am. I called Mrs. Grace Longe, ex DP O “A” Division, a stone throw from the club, and she told me she did not order the deployment of police to the club. I saw men from the Delta State Police Command Anti-robbery section led by DSP Alex Gwazah who was the O/C anti-robbery squad. They had a field day, destroying the monument, the tennis court, and carted away an LCD television and other valuables.”

    An embittered Adimkpaya said despite several petitions to the former Delta Police Commissioner, the matter was not investigated. Not even a petition to the IGP yielded any result.

    Jedeowon has alleged complicity by the government to dispossess him of his property. In his petition to the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) dated April 3, Jedeowon said his company acquired the property located on River Niger Waterfront from UAC of Nigeria in 1998. He said the purchase of the property was consummated by the issuance of both a Deed of Assignment and an irrevocable Power of Attorney by the UAC.

    His words: “ At the time of the purchase too, UAC issued the sitting tenants –Asaba Sport Club –a notice to deliver vacant possession and my company followed with a quit notice. An appeal was made to me at that time to let them continue use of the tennis courts and club house until I was ready to develop the property.

    “Sometime in 2005, I discovered that the club had surreptitiously applied to the Ministry of Lands ,Survey and Urban Development the said land to it but the Ministry responded by declaring that the ownership of the property was not in doubt and that they should dialogue with me if they want to continue to stay.”

    Jedeowon named a top government functionary, who, according to him, sponsored the incorporation of the board of trustees of Asaba Sports Club and was made Grand Patron of the club.

    The government said Jedeowon did not have a C of O for the property. It said it had acquired the disputed land for overriding public interest, warning trespassers of being liable to payment of fine or one-year imprisonment upon conviction.

    Delta Commissioner, Lands, Survey and Urban Development Sir Patrick Ferife said: “He (Jideowon) does not have a C of O. How can the government revoke a C of O when he was not issued one? I do not have much to say on this matter because the matter is still in court, but the government has taken over the land for overriding public interest.”

    Ferife said THE government invoked the Land Use Act and took over the Asaba Sports Club, adding: “We have documents of transaction in our registry dating back to the colonial times. I feel sad that someone will use a bulldozer to destroy a national monument which the Asaba Sports Club, built in 1864, was.”

     

    Plot Thickens

     

    The controversy surrounding the ownership of the property assumed a new dimension when Jedeowon accused the Delta Police Commissioner Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba of planning to kill him, pointing at an incident in Lagos where the police attempted to arrest him despite not producing a warrant of arrest.

    He said Aduba ordered the arrest of his lawyer on March 22 in the court premises, an act which he described as “reckless”.

    Aduba said his interest was to ensure that the truth of the matter was upheld. He said he inherited the case from his predecessor, Mr. Mamman Tsafe but had diligently pursued the matter, especially when the IGP recommended prosecution for any involved in the illegal demotion of Asaba Sports Club.

    He said: “The parties are in court over the disputed land. The demolition was illegal and unlawful. We have written our report and the IGP has approved our recommendation to prosecute anyone found culpable. Anyone behind the destruction should be charged for malicious damage.”

    He said those crying foul were those unhappy about how he had diligently handled the matter.

    But while the search for the persons behind the destruction of Asaba Sports Club continues, a legacy which captures the rich tapestries of life of a people has been irrecoverably lost.

     

  • Illegal bunkering: 17 refineries destroyed in Rivers

    Illegal bunkering: 17 refineries destroyed in Rivers

    In the determination of the Nigerian Navy to put an end to illegal bunkering and oil theft, 17 refineries have been destroyed and a vessel impounded in Rivers State in the last three weeks, with five more illegal refineries to still be destroyed in the next few days.

    The new Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), Eastern Naval Command, Rear Admiral Joe Aikhomu, made the disclosure during his maiden visit to the Nigerian Naval Ship (NNS) Pathfinder, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt.

    Aikhomu disclosed that the impounded vessel, MT Divine Favour, was operating in the territorial waterways without documents, while the petroleum products in the vessel were also not documented.

    The FOC, who visited NNS Thunder, NNS Burutu and NNS Kwanya in Onne, near Port Harcourt which are naval units under his command, said the navy had put in place measures to enable it surmount its challenges.

     

  • Fulani herdsmen’s homes destroyed in Benue

    Fulani herdsmen in Odessa, Onyagede District of Benue State, have urged the state and local governments to assist them, following the destruction of over 20 of their homes by unknown persons.

    The spokesman, Mallam Anaruwa Abdullahi, who addressed reporters yesterday at Onyagede, regretted that the incident occurred when they were away.

    He said unknown persons destroyed their homes when they were grazing their cattle.

    Abdullahi said he and his Fulani compatriots lost property, ranging from generators, television sets, clothes as well as over N300,000 cash.

    The spokesman said following the incident, the affected herdsmen now take refuge under trees.

    An indigene of the local government and a former state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Sule Audu, who visited the scene, expressed shock at the level of damage.

    He urged the local government chairman and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to assist the victims.

    The chairman of Ohimini Local Government, Mr Sunday Mark, described the incident as unfortunate.

    He promised to forward the herdsmen’s request to the appropriate quarters.

  • Multi-million naira properties destroyed in Asaba inferno

    Multi-million naira properties destroyed in Asaba inferno

    A PROPERTIES worth millions were yesterday destroyed following an inferno that razed a building at Umuekwo quarters, Asaba, Delta State capital.

    The fire, according to an eyewitness, started from the upper part of the building and destroyed all the properties.

    A source blamed the fire on the storage of petrol (Petroleum Motor Spirit) in the building by the property owner to fule his generator.

    A widow was said to have occupied the upper part of the building with her children.

    Fire fighters from the state Fire Service could not put out the fire until the building had been razed half-way.

  • 10,000 farmlands destroyed by flood in Adamawa

    More than 10,000 farmlands were destroyed by flood in Adamawa State, following the release of water from Lagdo Dam in Cameroon Republic.

    The Federal Director of Agriculture in the state, Dr Walia Hamman, said in Yola that the flood affected almost half of the state, adding that thousands of farmlands were washed away and over 30,000 large-scale and small farmers directly affected.

    He urged the three tiers of government to urgently provide the enabling environment for irrigation farming, to mitigate the impact of the disaster on food production.

    “The only clear solution to avoid food crisis is for governments at all levels to urgently intervene and provide farmers with agricultural inputs and also create the enabling environment for them to practise irrigation farming.” Hamma said.

    Also reacting to the development, the project manager, Lake Geriyo irrigation project of the Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority, Yola, Mr D. Mamtso, said about 221 farmers were affected with an estimated 150 hectares of farmlands destroyed.

    “In all, 221 farmers from Lake Geriyo irrigation project in Yola North Local Government area have been identified with an estimate of 150 hectares affected by the recent flood.

    ”He said the farmers were in need of assistance in order to recover from the shock of the disaster.”

    Commissioner for Agriculture Mrs Lucy Ishaku expressed concern over the implication of the flood on the envisaged bumper harvest.

    Mrs Ishaku noted that the prices of foodstuffs had skyrocketed in markets across the state as an aftermath of the flood.

    ”Considering the price of foodstuff last year at this time, there is an indication of confusion in price of the food commodities now.”

     

     

     

     

    She said the people of the state had not experienced such a disaster in the past 40 years.

    Mrs Ishaku said that the ministry had initiated a census of farmlands affected by the flood, with a view to ascertaining the level of damage to agriculture and ways to assist the affected farmers to recoup through dry season farming.

    In a separate interview, Malam Abdullahi Tafida, the Chairman, Adamawa State Rice Farmers and Water User Sssociation, said that 75 per cent of members of the association lost their crops to the flood.

    ”Seventy five per cent of our members lost their crops completely as a result of the flood. And our members are engaged in both rainy and dry season farming of maize, rice and assorted vegetable.”

    He appealed to the federal, state and local governments to assist them with early maturing crop varieties, fertiliser, irrigation pumps and herbicides. “ These inputs will help us to start dry season farming immediately as the flood begins to recede,” Tafida said.

  • ‘Babangida, others destroyed the civil service’

    The Head of Service of the Federation (HOSF), Alhaji Isa Bello Sali, has blamed the regime of former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), for laying the foundations of the rot that currently permeates the nation’s civil service.

    Sali said the reforms carried out between 1985 and 1988 were largely responsible for the dearth of professionals and committed public officers in the public service.

    The Head of Service made the allegations in a paper he at the delivered opening session of the 36th Annual Conference of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSAN), in Abuja, yesterday.

    He explained that the implementation of the Professor Dotun Philip’s report and subsequent promulgation of Decree 43 to give legal backing to the implementation of the recommendations of the report largely eroded the vitality, standard of performance and cohesion of the public service.

    He said: “The subsequent reforms of 1985-88 which arose from the recommendations of the Dotun Philip report was given legal effect through Decree 43 of 1988. The legislation paved the way for all comers into the top echelon of the civil service.”