Officials of the Enugu State Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) will from 1 January 2020 once again rev their bulldozer engines and move against illegal shops, add-on shops in buildings, container shops on the streets, and every other obstructive structures that distort the city masterplan, it has been announced.

The new wave of demolitions will also target makeshift containers converted to shops and installed on service lanes, drainages, internal streets, fence walls, waterways, and public places, according to a public notice from the agency.

The authorities had explained before now that the renewed assault on illegal structures in Enugu is designed to restore the Enugu Master Plan and reinstate the city to its prior charming ambience.

The latest effort to sanitise the environment is coming after a two-month lull in activities, following a public outcry.

Two major targets in this round of demolitions will be those carrying on trading activities in and around Kenyatta Market in Uwani as well as the popular GSM Computer Village at New Haven Layout.

At Uwani, building materials merchants have been given an ultimatum to, within four months, move to an alternate location given to them by a previous administration.

Affected by this order are merchants who occupy Onah, Obioma, Kenyatta, Amawbia, and Isiagu Streets who have been ordered to move to their assigned new location at the Enugu South International Building Materials Market without further delay.

The notice reminded the merchant traders that a quit notice served on them six years ago (on 5 November 2013) is still subsisting and that government will come with bulldozers by 5 January 2020 to demolish the shops if they fail to heed this final warning to relocate.

New furniture and other businesses that have fanned out from Kenyatta into major Uwani streets such as Robinson, Obioma, and Edozie streets, will be forcibly removed by government from 1 January 2020, if owners and occupiers of building add-ons and shop-containers on these streets do not remove them by themselves.

At New Haven, Government said that owners of GSM Computer village shops, behind IMT Quarters, have been given four months to relocate to the New Haven Market proper as their current location occupies railway right of way and, in some instances, blocks water ways.

Any shop occupier that fails to move to the Market by 31 March 2020 will have their shops demolished, the statement warned.

Mr. Onoh, Chairman, ECTDA

During the first phase of demolitions, supervised by Executive Chair of ECTDA, Mr. Josef Umunnakwe Onoh, Government had gone after 264 buildings, including petrol stations that constituted environmental hazards in Enugu East.

Agency reports quoted a government official who explained that there is no justification in allowing structures that were built without approvals simply because the owners and occupiers were crying.

“This would amount to allowing and compensating illegality,” according to Mr. Steve Oruro, the State Government Adviser on Information, who told the national news agency that “there should be an adequate penalty for nonconformists who defy environmental laws and block waterways.”

Mr. Oruruo said that government is aware of the disomfort that the exercise has caused to people but that “the general benefit outweighs its collateral damage.”

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