About two months ago, the Delta State government set up a task force to demolish illegal structures and clean up major towns in the state, beginning from Warri, Uwvie and Udu Local Government A reas. The chairman of the task force and Commissioner for Environment, Chief Frank Omare, was at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Warri Correspondents Chapel Press Centre to respond to some allegations of nepotism and high-handedness. The excerpts.
Why do you think that you are the one always being given difficult assignments that tend to pitch you against both the rich and the poor?
The assignment I am handling today is not a difficult assignment, but it is the assignment given to me by the governor and the people of Delta State. I believe that in government, people should take a decision and we have to decide either wrongly or rightly and you are aware we visited Warri some weeks ago and we are still going to come back because the structures that was set to be in place. We are almost packaging all of that in order to do something that will be enduring.
In Warri, a lot of people have been affected by the demolition exercise and of course, times are hard. But the point is that if times are hard, if there are difficulties, if there is poverty, if there is a problem, must we break the law? And if the law is broken, then none of us can be here because there will be a chaotic atmosphere, where parents will abandon their children and children will abandon their parents.
Therefore, the present assignment of removal of illegal structures, caravans, opening of major drains and internal drains, making sure that people, as much as possible, are being restricted from street trading, are the key things we cannot compromise and of course we all know, as we speak, that everybody in Delta is a lawyer, including myself. So, a lot of people have been affected dearly when their houses were demolished and their illegal structures destroyed.
Shouldn’t the government pay some compensation to the victims of the demolition exercise?
There is no compensation for anybody, because for you to have an approval from the Ministry of Land and Survey to build your house does not give you the authority to say whether you have a Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) and that bothers me with the accusations, the threat, the blackmailing on government. I led the team executing the demolition exercise and as the chairman, I take full responsibility for any action on behalf of the government because I have an assignment from the state that affects all of us, including myself.
You mean you take responsibility for the demolition of great houses at Ifiekporo and Jala?
Yes, we went there; true, we have wonderful houses there, but the point is that I have to ask the authority who gave them land? I asked the owners, ‘where is your C of O? How did you build it from the Ministry of Land and Survey and from the people of course?’ I have evidence from the ministry that, some of those properties even the building foundation, they warned them that the land belonged to the government and not an individual land. They did not listen and if you are building on a government land without the government’s approval, you are building on nothing and this land was acquired not from the old Bendel State, but from the Mid-Western State and these people were probably warned. Pictures, the evidence of when they were building the foundation, are all in the Ministry of Land and Survey and of course, they will say, ‘don’t worry, government cannot talk.’ Truly, government may be slow in action and that is why we had to protect the law and let us not shy away from it.
So, this led to the destruction of both incomplete and competed residential buildings at Ifiekporo and Jala?
Yes, we had to bring down all the structures in the royal cemetery. Now, I am lucky to be that individual among four million Deltans as the Commissioner of Environment. If nobody had the political will to correct the error in the past, and I’m given the power to do it today and I am unable to do it, who will do it tomorrow? This is not all about attacking an ethnic group, a group of people or being selective; you all know how I was raised. I have a passion for any assignment given to me, whether it is to sweep the government secretariat, provided it is an assignment given to me.
Even in Sapele, the prevalent situation is because of the government’s inability to execute its will. But by the grace of God, people would even wish you would never come back again as a government official. Yes, I’m not interested in compromising the government’s policies if that will make me not to become a member of the government again. I’m still a young man and I don’t have any problem. But, my history will say that I didn’t compromise while I was there. I will never compromise. You are a government official, your cousins will come and meet you and say, ‘uncle, I need to open up a shop” and you give them money. What will they do? They will go and approach those who are selling containers, buy and take them to a welder, who will charge them and they will pay. After that, they will re-paint the containers and then meet store leaders and they will also pay. Later, you will see somebody, I’m the Pere of this place, you have to pay these charges for this months and weeks and then another group will come, we are the youth excos of this place, we are vigilante and at the end of the day, that poor market woman who wants to start a market that needed to have looked for a shop that costs like N200,000, has spent more than that to get a mere caravan.
During these activities, I might have offended some persons, stepped on the toes of either a big man or a small man, but the point that remains fundamental to me is that there is no big man’s house that I have pulled down that is crying about it.
Who is a big man? It is you and I and everybody that can afford, conveniently, three square meals. I was with the governor; I was in front of his house because it was under high tension cable. I began to pull it down; he came down and saw that it was Omare. Of course, he would have come to challenge me and I would have harassed him as my governor because his fence was on the road and that was part of my mandate, but nobody made noise about it. Also, a chief visited me in Ekpan, where a complete fence was brought down because it was on the road and nobody made noise about it.
Even a former commissioner of finance in the state claimed that he had a court judgment restraining anybody. His fence was obstructing the road. We pulled it down. We have cleared the whole of Main Market, Ogbe-Ijoh and everybody was watching. Even my friend and colleague, we are from the same place, I made sure his property was brought down; it was not malicious. The Majority Leader of the state House of Assembly, Honourable Ikuya, his own property was also brought down. I led the team, nobody made noise about it. Charles was a former governorship aspirant in the state; his building in Sapele, go and see what has happened to it? You will know that I was there.
If you go to Ghana, you will still see the poor people, they respect the law, even in Awka Ibom here in Nigeria, they still respect the law. The culture of our people, where the roadside is now the dumpsite for everybody, ask yourself was that the culture five years ago? People are beginning to think that there is no government or they want to embarrass the government. How does it please me, the impetus of my actions, the impetus to pretend to get money from the government and I don’t do the work? God will punish me. People begin to ask God why is this man in government? I believe I am performing my functions. Every market, whether illegal or state or local government-owned, go there, it is only the front that is a market; there are no shops inside.
A typical example is Warri. In one old man’s house, there are three shops and he has given them out. The same compound, the front, he gave them to three persons and they put caravans there. That is not allowed and of course market is everywhere. Government’s resources are limited, but of course we are everywhere, in the health sector, infrastructure, everywhere. So, there should be environmental discipline
It is alleged that in spite of your claim that you do not discriminate in your demolition exercise, you left the fence of the Nigeria Police in Sapele untouched. Are the police above the law?
He, who alleges, must prove. I have been in Sapele; the Commissioner for Land and Survey is a member of the task force. At no point in time has my colleague confronted me and said look, ‘this is given an approval, why did we have to do this?
I have been asking what has happened to the Navy’s property that was brought down at Refinery Road. We had to evacuate them. And that is why I like some of you; you are always asking what is true because there are some information that want to promote disharmony among people. The police cell in Okirigbe, we have asked them to remove it to the point we have established for them through the Ministry of Lands and Survey. Why we didn’t bring it down was because in the cell, there were a lot of criminals and I wouldn’t want my bringing it down, they would say I have helped people out of the prison. So, the government is working closely with the police authority.
There is an allegation that you take bribes from certain people, thereby leaving their illegal structures untouched ?
I said this clearly that I am from a very poor home. I am a Warri boy and if you look at my background, it is like any other poor person in the country. But, I will not because of that destroy an institution. We cannot continue to allow people to block government roads because they are poor people, because they don’t have shops, we cannot allow it. In other countries, of course you know there is a Sunday market. We are not against it, but the culture of blocking our major roads; we should discourage it in its entirety. Poverty is not an option. Who is a poor man? He is somebody who can reason very well, who can manage the little he has. Some rich people, they just carry money, do things anyhow. Even the people we say are poor, if we look at how they got their caravans, you would be shocked. We have provided markets, let them go inside and trade there. They are enough and sufficient. On the issue of bribes, he who alleges must prove. I did it right, Why did you do it right? It is because you did something wrong. So, if we come and see those things and you say Oga please let me remove my things, we would arrest you because you have made us to come back. Today is their turn, tomorrow may be anybody’s turn and that is the key.
Among the residential structures you demolished at Ifiekporo was a bungalow belonging to a 72-year-old retired marine engineer. You have rendered the man homeless as he now squats in a friend’s ‘boys’ quarters.’
The land belongs to the government of Delta and if he is challenging that authority, he should bring his C-of-O. I am very serious about it, I did not send myself, I was sent by the state Executive Council and I have to implement it rightly and if I have done it wrongly, I should be prosecuted because I know that before every house was demolished at Ifiekporo, notice was given to them. And a week before that day, all of you can attest to the fact that the people used for the demolition exercise went round, speaking different languages, Hausa, Urhobo, Igbo, Ijaw every morning to announce to them the plan.
I led my team and the moment we arrived, we gave them one hour to remove all their things; there was even a particular house we gave two hours. There was sufficient notice so, the man has built on nothing because it is a government land and as an engineer, as a learned person, you should know the consequences of it. Therefore, if he is challenging the government, he should give us the evidence where we have gone wrong by way of ‘wrong’ demolition. At the NUJ house, if you don’t have a C-of-O, we will demolish it. Even if it is 1000 years and it is under a water channel, we will demolish it.
But we believe that one of the duties of the government is to protect the weak…..
Government policies and ideologies are always that of the minorities. People feel that, because this is the road that the government wants to tar and there are 20 people on it so, the popularity of the government’s decision is now becoming a minority decision. Let us know that what the government has put in place is the majority’s decision in the long run. The man was given adequate information and he knows that the land he built on is for the government.
Next week, we are going to the media to report it clearly that all those forest reserves in Delta that have been encroached on by Deltans, they should leave there immediately. If you go to the Sapele Forest Reserve, it is as if the government does not own a land there. Why build on government’s land? If you go to Agbor and Asaba, it is the same thing. The trend cuts across and I will not fold my hands. Let me take the bullet and I’m taking it on behalf of Nigerians, of those of us in the government and I will appreciate your prayers. I don’t have anybody at all at Ifiekporo and I am not regretting the actions I have taken on behalf of the government because the government must take a decision and I am one man that takes a decision at all times.
Some flood victims, especially at Otu Jeremi, complained that they have not received anything from the 2012 flood largesse. What explanation do you have on the matter?
The money doesn’t get to you as a community leader, else you will claim that nothing has happened. Assuming the people you interacted with, if N1million, N2million or N500,000 has been given to them, I’m sure there would be no complaints. Of course, this is not charity. You cannot be in Lagos and expect the committee to go and look for you and give you what is meant for the common people. The chairman of the committee and other members live in this country, I cannot rubbish them, I can vouch for them that they did a thorough job and reported to the government. On the N500 million, I’m sure and happy that my governor, did not spend any of it. He released it to the committee. He even called them and made sure that every area and every community was touched. So, the committee has done a very good job and if it has not reached everybody, let the people wait and I pray that there will be no flood again of that magnitude in the state.
Concerning the Royal Cemetery, we understand that the demolition exercise was targeted at a particular ethnic group?
I am an Ijaw man, but I am not a commissioner for the Ijaw ethnic nationality, I’m a commissioner for Delta State and I have been given an assignment by the state government. So, the exercise can affect any ethnic group, but the most important thing is that if what the Omare-led team has done is against the law, then I should be prosecuted, but if not, it is not an issue. As a matter of fact, my recommendation is that we should arrest those people, who are using government’s resources wrongly and prosecute them. You build on government’s land, you allow the government to use its resources to hire equipment to demolish your house! In fact, those people have built on nothing and should be prosecuted.
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