Over 2,000 people came to demolish my house—Homeless Ex-UNIBEN VC

It was a pitiable sight on Monday, January 5, 2015 seeing the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Prof.Osayuki Oshodin, at his official residence in GRA, Benin City, as bulldozers were unleashed on the building on the orders of Edo State government.

It was about 5pm that day when the bulldozers went to work. Oshodin, who was relaxing after the day’s job, was shocked.

The mission of the bulldozers was straight forward: Enforce the order of the High Court, Benin, which declared that the about 18 properties given to the University of Benin in 1970 by the government of the defunct Midwest State, led by Dr Samuel Ogbemudia, were the properties of the Edo government and not that of UNIBEN.

The properties, as Sunday Vanguard was told, were given to the university by Ogbemudia to assist the staff of the university since it was then a brand new university on Benin soil. Ever since then, the properties have been within the possession of the university. It was, however, learnt that the Prof.Osarhiemen Osunbor administration started the process of recovering the properties after it was alleged that they were attempts by some staff of the UNIBEN to sell them. It was said that the Osunbor administration published a caveat emptor where the state government urged members of the pubic not to buy any of the properties. That process of recovery was on until the administration of Governor Adams Oshiomhole came in, in 2008.

However, tension between the university and the state government heightened after the High Court, Benin, presided over by Justice E.O.Ahamioge, ruled in favour of the state government on December 16, 2014. UNIBEN had dragged the state government to court and canvassed five issues but the court rejected all of them and ruled that it should vacate the properties after it failed to prove ownership of the properties.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, the university reported filed an appeal and application for stay of execution of the judgment. But the state government on Monday rolled out bulldozers on the disputed properties and Oshodin and others became the victims. The former UNIBEN VC, who described the action as illegal and wicked, narrated his ordeal: “I was in the house here when I saw over 2,000 people from Edo State government who came to demolish my house. I was shocked because there was no notice from anybody.

Even if you want to enforce a court order, is it with this large number of people? Apart from the fact that we have filed an appeal against the judgment, why don’t you wait till the appeal is heard? What the governor is doing is illegal and that is very bad. As a teacher, what I have are my books, including some which I used during my primary school days. They have destroyed most of them, no opportunity to pack out my things. I have not seen this kind of wickedness before and that is why I am shocked”.

Also speaking, counsel to the university, Hannibal Uwaifo, narrated: “After the judgment on December 16, 2014 which gave the state government ownership of the properties, on the 23rd, unidentified agents of the state government mercilessly beat up and forcefully threw out the staff of the university. We are worried because of the use of people like this to enforce a court judgment. One of the reasons we are always reminded that we live in a civilized society is the presence of the regular courts by which conflicting claims between members of the society are ideally independently and impartially resolved. We have pending appeal and motion for stay execution before the court, yet the state government went on to destroy the properties and that is illegal”.

But the Edo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Henry Idahagbon, said they did not demolish UNIBEN properties but only took possession of Edo State government properties based on a court judgment of December 16, 2014. He went on: “First of all, there was no stay of execution and clearly we did not engage in any demolition of property. What we did was to take possession of government property after judgement was validly given by a competent court of jurisdiction. It is a 65-page judgement delivered on December 16, 2014 wherein the judge asked UNIBEN to deliver forthwith possession to the Edo State government.

“UNIBEN took government to court. They canvassed five issues and they lost each and every issue they canvassed. They said the government of Midwestern Nigeria gave them the documents. But no documents whatsoever showed that the land was transferred to them. They have appealed, there was no copy of stay of execution. An appeal does not act as stay of execution. They are just making noise.   As I speak, the four respondents involved in this case, which include the Edo State government, the governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the Attorney-General of the State and the Commissioner for Lands, have not been served with any court processes since the 16th  day of December, 2014 when judgment was given.

‘I will resign if…’

“I also want to state categorically that if the University of Benin and their counsel are able to show proof of service of any application for stay of execution of judgment on any of the four respondents, I Henry Idahagbon will resign as Attorney-General of Edo State and go back to my village to farm. They may have filed, that I am not aware because, after filing, they have to serve. It is the service of court processes that invokes the jurisdiction of court. Until a party is served, the party is known before court and since the 16th  of December when judgment was given, the case at the High Court effectively ended. If they are starting any appellate process, the four people, that is, the respondents mentioned earlier, must be served personally and none of us has been served.” He further clarified that what was done by the state government was not a demolition exercise but a possession exercise in pursuant to the court judgment, stressing that the court gave judgment that UNIBEN and the occupants of the buildings should deliver possession forthwith.

He said, “Every hour after the delivery of that judgment, they ought to have parked their properties and given up the possession, but instead, they were insinuating that they are Federal Government, that they have a hundred thousand students. For goodness sake, this country is still being run by the rule of law and no institution of government, no matter how powerful, no matter the number of persons under your control, can be bigger than the government or the law. Those living in the lodge were given quit notices since 2011 and the court rightly held that they were not tenants to Edo State government but that they were licencee”.

He said, in 1981, UNIBEN had gone to court on the same matter where in the late Justice Ugbobine also gave judgment that the properties did not belong to the University of Benin.

Protest

The demolition of the properties elicited condemnation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo, UNIBEN students and members of the university’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The irate students burnt down a luxury bus belonging to the Edo City Transport, and blocked the Benin-Lagos Road for several hours.

By Simon Ebegbulem