By David Owei,Bayelsa <\/p>\n
A group of Bayelsans and Residents under the aegis of concerned landlords including an eighty year old woman had taken to the streets of Yenagoa to protest against government plan to demolish their houses by Monday with military , other security agencies, should they refused to adhere to earlier notice of demolition served them to vacate their houses or risked been fenced inside.<\/p>\n
According to comrade Dimepre Torukeregha,the residents within the Tenacious road,behind the school to land genuinely bought their lands from Biogbolo Community and they have lived there for over twenty years and were surprised to see the commissioner of Agriculture and Natural resources,Prof Beke Sese who sent government to start fencing their land and when they approached them, they said their exercise will encroach on our land too and we told them that we bought these portion of land from Biogbolo community twenty years ago and had developed them to our taste and the matter was addressed politically,after it was taken to court initially.<\/p>\n
” We said that can’t happen,government cannot use force ,brute and barbaric methods to demolish land we genuinely bought and we tried to resolve this matter amicably all to no avail ”<\/p>\n
” Early this January government officials started fencing it’s land and we learned they equally wanted to fence 111 buildings belonging to us,we are a community here,and will not take it”<\/p>\n
” Governor Douye Diri we know ,knows our pains and we know what he equally passed through before he became a miracle governor and he will not all his fellow ljaws to be oppressed and intimidated by the commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources,besides most of us were members of PDP before defecting to APC and have numerical voting strength during his election with three wards in this community and we have supported this government and still ready to serve.<\/p>\n
” We appeal to his excellency to temper justice with mercy ,shun the barbaric and brute method of land acquisition been orchestrated by the commissioner of Agriculture and Natural Resources,even the paramount ruler of Biogbolo said the land they sold to Bayelsa state government didn’t extend to our area”<\/p>\n
Another protester,comrade Saint Ikpokpo avered that they are residents who genuinely purchased land from Biogbolo community and developed them with relevant documents from government agencies and expressed shock to see government officials sent by the commissioner of Agriculture and Natural Resources with intention of demolition. We dialogued ,but all to no avail.<\/p>\n
” Most of us are politicians have worked for the prosperity government ,we expect government to reciprocate by protecting us from this impending demolition been orchestrated by his commissioner of Agriculture and Natural Resources.His Excellency ,Douye Diri can’t oppress or intimidate us,we all worked for this government,being a responsive man,he should call his commissioner to order or personally come to see things for himself,all the commissioner is doing is eye service and he is not worthy of commissioner and he should be sacked”<\/p>\n
His Excellency is the best governor in Nigeria ,whom we have all worked for and should not allow us to be fenced inside like prisoners,he should intervene for us to have peace”<\/p>\n
Also speaking,the women leader,Ms Jennifer Diekidie posited that she had lived there since 2010 and no commissioner of Agriculture and Natural Resources had come to intimidate or oppressed them as they were bonafide owners of the land they bought from Biogbolo community,which their paramount ruler can attest to.<\/p>\n
” We are stanging this protest to alert the governor to save us from the proposed Monday demolition ,which the commissioner had boasted that by the time we see military vans,nobody will ask us to run,before we shall run helter skelter. We will die should government enforce the demolition order”<\/p>\n
Also lamenting is an octegenerian ,an eighthy year old woman,madam Rose Gbekebor who hails from Torugbene in Ekeremor Local Government area of Bayelsa state.<\/p>\n
According to her,her only appeal is to governor Douye Diri to temper justice with mercy as it was interpreted because she spoke in ljaw dialect .<\/p>\n
The protesters had some of their placards with inscription such as ” Governor, Your commissioner has misinformed you, sack him, Governor you are a sincere father , we need your help now, we are in pains and agony, come , come, come, before we are rendered homeless by commissioner of Agriculture among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By David Owei,Bayelsa A group of Bayelsans and Residents under the aegis of concerned landlords including an eighty year old woman had taken to the streets of Yenagoa to protest against government plan to demolish their houses by Monday with military , other security agencies, should they refused to adhere to earlier notice of demolition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[157,5363,4165],"class_list":["post-10133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-commissioner","tag-intimidated","tag-oppressed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10135,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions\/10135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}