An estimated 60,000 persons could become homeless on the planned eviction of communities in the Diobu area of Port Harcourt, by the Rivers State government, a coalition of civil society groups has said.
The group in a statement, dated January 26, 2022, not only condemned the plan but warned that it would aggravate poverty and hunger in the communities if carried out.
According to the coalition, a government task force, on January 19, 2022, visited the waterfront communities, marked homes for demolition, and told residents to vacate within 7 days, meaning that “the residents will be rendered homeless and driven into poverty by the loss of livelihoods and other hardship associated with homelessness and displacement.”
Megan Chapman, co-founder/co-director, Justice & Empowerment Initiatives, decried the threat and called on the state government to reconsider its plans as it will violate the fundamental human rights of the residents as well as undermine the security and long-term development goals of all residents of Port Harcourt.
“Any person that has witnessed the horrors of forced eviction, where persons are thrown out of their homes and have their livelihoods and communities destroyed overnight, cannot believe this is the path to the security and development of our society,” Chapman noted.
She cited studies that have shown the terrible long-term impacts of forced evictions on the income, health, and education of evictees, adding, “we understand that Governor Nyesom Wike declared a crackdown on “identified criminal hideouts” in Port Harcourt township and the Illoabuchi axis of Diobu in his 2022 New Year’s address.
She, however, dismissed this as a vague menace that has resulted in fear among waterfront communities that have seen previous administrations use fear-mongering and smear campaigns to justify forced evictions of waterfront communities like Agip, Njemanze, and Abonnema Wharf.
Chapman recalled that Diobu-axis waterfront communities joined hands on January 7, 2022, to write to Governor Wike to express their concerns and requested an urgent audience with him to discuss how to address security concerns and otherwise seek a win-win partnership as an alternative to eviction and demolition, but till date, there has been no positive response to these appeals.
Read also: LGA bosses take over hunt for illegal refineries in Rivers State’s forests
“Meanwhile, the reality is that the demolitions being threatened do not target specific criminals or criminal hideouts; instead, they are a pretext for evicting thousands of innocent children, women, men, and elderly persons who are employed in legitimate businesses through which they eke out a modest living, and from which they pay their children’s school fees and government taxes,” she noted.
She reasoned that such persons live in Port Harcourt’s informal settlements because of the lack of affordable housing in the formal sector, adding that they make positive contributions every day to the city’s economy.
“The false impression given to the public must be corrected. The law does not authorise mass evictions nor does it allow the demolition of properties based on feeble suspicion. Rather, any person suspected of a crime is to be arrested, prosecuted, and found guilty in line with the right to fair hearing protected by Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution where-after the person may face a term of imprisonment or other penalty provided at law,” she advised.
She added that forced evictions as collective punishment are unlawful, unconstitutional, and counter-productive as, according to her, “they do not make our cities safer.”
Chapman argued that, if the government is allowed to evade the rule of law and take the law into its own hands to trample on the rights of thousands of citizens, then all of society will suffer.
To her, injustice will not stop with the poor and those living in informal settlements, noting that this land grabbing will render no one safe from eviction and seizure of all that he or she has worked for in life.
“We are members of the affected communities. We are members of other communities in Port Harcourt who fear that we will be next should our brothers and sisters fall to the present threat. We are members of communities from other cities who stand in solidarity with those who are under threat today,” she said.
