The Edo State government on Tuesday evening demolished a property belonging to the immediate past Deputy Governor of the state, Dr Pius Odubu.
Besides Odubu’s house, the governor equally demolished two other houses; one belonging to the former Secretary to the State Government (SSG), under the administration Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Professor Julius Ihonvbere and the second belonging to a sports enthusiast, Mike Etemuagbon, another close associate of Oshiomhole.
Odubu’s house on Dennis Osadebe Avenue, GRA, Benin City was occupied by his younger brother and his family at the time of the demolition.
Governor Obaseki had earlier this year revoked the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) of some property in the Benin GRA, especially the ones believed to have been allocated by Oshiomhole to his allies and close associates while he held sway as the governor or the state between 2008 and 2016.
Reacting to the demolition, Odubu described the action as it as “unfortunate”, saying that the matter was already before the court.
The former deputy governor said he had read in the Nigerian Observer Newspaper in January that the Certificate of Occupancy to his property situated at Dennis Osadebe Avenue in the Government Reserve Area (GRA) in Benin City, had been revoked.
“The information came to me this afternoon, March 23, that my property situated at Dennis Osadebe avenue has been brought down by agents of the government on the directive of the governor.
“Before now, my attention was brought to a publication in the Observer newspaper in January that the C of O of my property has been revoked without prior notice given to me.
“I went to court in the matter and I am surprised that after they have been served, the government still went ahead to bring down my house with a bulldozer.
“My younger one was in the house when it was brought down and they did not give them notice nor allowed to remove any of their properties before destroying the place,” the distraught Odubu explained.
Mrs Precious Odubu, who narrated the incident to newsmen, said at about 4pm she noticed some policemen who came into the compound and she approached them to inquire about their mission.
“The way they came in, not through the main gate, I was afraid and asked about their mission and they told me that they want to demolish the house and if there are children in the building they should be brought out,” Mrs Odubu said.
“Without even waiting for my response, they just brought in their bulldozers and started destroying the house without allowing us to remove our properties,” she added.
Ihonvbere, who is the lawmaker representing Owan Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, had property, which is under construction, destroyed.
TrackNews Online recalled that at the peak of the crisis of confidence between Oshiomhole and Obaseki, before the governor was denied the ticket of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for his second term, the governor had a hotel belonging to one Tony Adun, aka Tony Kabaka, demolished at another section of the Benin GRA on the ground that the hotel was built on public primary school land.
Tony Kabaka, it would also be recalled, was a strong member of the Edo Progressive Movement, an APC pressure group populated by Oshiomhole’s loyalists in the party which superintended over the ousting of Obaseki from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under which he won the September 19, 2020 governorship election in the state.
