DEMOLITION: 91-Year-Old Chief Rendered Homeless

A 91 year- old Benin Palace chief, Solomon Adagbonyin has been rendered homeless after his building at 300, Upper Sakponba area of the state was demolished by the Edo State office of the commission.

demolished

The chief while counting his losses appealed to the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to come to his aid and look into the circumstances surrounding the demolition shortly after a media briefing by the Edo Coalition for Good Democracy and Good Governance on the incident.

The palace chief, who was close to tears, said that he has no house again and no where to stay said he was now a refugee in his country.

Recounting his ordeal he said the house was built in 1965 after obtaining all necessary documents from the Benin Traditional Council and the defunct Mid- West Region was sometime in January 2014, demolished by bulldozers from the NDDC Benin office without any prior notice, excavating the grave of his late wife and destroying property worth millions of naira belonging to him and his tenants,  under the guise that the house was obstructing the right of way to the new Benin-Abraka Road.

He added that it was renovated 11 years later to face the new Benin- Abraka Road, which the government of Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia reconstructed in 1975.

Meanwhile, the Edo Coalition for Good Democracy and Good Governance has appealed to the Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa to step into the matter with a view of making the NDDC to live up to its responsibility to the citizens.