Member representing Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta, Oru West Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, Rt Hon Goodluck Opiah has joined to condemn last weeks demolition of the palatial mansion of the APGA Reps candidate for the area, Dr Henry Okafor.
Okafor’s house was last Thursday brushed down by bulldozers accompanied by policemen alleged to be acting on a court order.
Opiah who is also a ticket holder of APC and the incumbent for the position Okafor is seeking, paid a sympathy visit to his Osemotor, Oguta LGA of the State.
Speaking at Okafor’s residence after making an on-the-spot assessment of the bizarre act, Opiah said that it is an inhuman act and the perpetrators have no reason to have used bulldozers open a part of the wall and moved in to raise the house down without notification to the owner.
“I share the grief of the moment with Prince (Dr) Okafor over his house that was demolished. I join others to condemn the act. Initially, I thought it was sheer social media creation when the pictures of the demolished house came up, but having been here myself to be a witness, am touched and feel worried over the dastardly act”, Opiah said.
The former speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly expressed happiness over the decision of Okafor to stop youths of the area from inflicting harm on the policemen who came into the community for the dastardly act. Opiah asked him to have faith in God and believe that tomorrow will be better.
In his earlier speech, Okafor narrated how his attention was attracted to the presence of the policemen armed with bulldozers in his house on the day of the incident. That before he could race to Osemotor, the bulldozers had wrecked havoc on the building he spent fortune to build for years.
Okafor further narrated that when he confronted the police team with a bailiff after demolition had commenced, they were surprised to see him around because of earlier reports fed to the team that he had gone underground to avoid arrest. While the said court bailiff was not able to warrant court order to that effect, Okafor revealed that he has not being served any court processes regarding a matter in court connected to the land.
He said that but for his intervention to have rescued the policemen and team, the youths of the area had mobilized to deal with them.
In a related development, Sen. Araraume has condemned in its entirety the attack on Henry Okafor, calling it callous and unimaginable.
Speaking through the Director General of his campaign organization, Chief Okey Ikoro during a solidarity visit at site of the incident, he wondered how security agents who lives and properties are entrusted into, would turn around to demolish a property without following due process or meeting stakeholders of the communities before destroying a property sited in a community.
Chief Ikoro who stated that the act was a calculated attempt to divert his attention from contesting, said it was obvious that Henry Okafor would defeat his opponents in the forthcoming elections.
“The matter will be taken up at both the court and party level, it is politically motivated because the young man is running for House of Representatives under APGA and it is obvious the community is on his side” he said.
While affirming the act as gross injustice, he said the matter will be followed to its logical conclusion and no stone will be left unturned to get to the root of it.
