ABOUT three hundred and fifty thousand civilians resident in the Army Barracks in Port Harcourt have been told to vacate the place before Monday. The eviction order handed down by the Nigerian Army, the residents said, got to them only on Wednesday. This is coming on the heels of a car explosion, which rocked the place recently killing some and injuring scores of people.
Reacting to the quit notice, the civilian residents who condemned it pleaded for six months to adequately prepare for the relocation. They said it was unfair that they could be asked to vacate a place they had lived in since the civil war.
In an SOS to Governor Peter Odili, the residents called on the President and the Minister of Defence to save them from what they dubbed an insensitive directive. The letter signed by Mallam Yahaya and Chief T. M. Ebbi regretted the recent explosion in the barracks but said it was improper to make them scapegoats for what they knew nothing on. The letter said their long stay in the barracks was a clear testimony to their good conduct.
Continuing, the residents drawn from across various states said the dislocation that would arise from the sudden quit notice would be too heavy a burden to bear.
“We find it difficult to believe that the Army, our landlord would punish us for what we know nothing of. The hardship on the civilian populace should this order be implemented is better imagined that seen. Some of us who have been here since the civil war cannot even find our roots. Sending us out within a short notice of eight days spells doom for the residents in particular and Rivers in general.
�Three hundred and fifty thousand of us are residing in this civilian zone. We cut across all tribes and even foreigners are here. They should also understand that schools would resume for third term soon. It will affect our children. We implore all concerned, the President, Minister of Defence, Chief of Army Staff and the Governor of Rivers State to look into this matter critically, we are pleading for more time to be able to prepare places to put our families and relocate our various businesses that are rooted in the barracks.�
They had mobilized to storm the Rivers State Government House yesterday morning, but had to cancel it when they heard the Governor was away to receive an award in the US.
Some of the residents who spoke to the Vanguard said they learnt the directive was from the Chief of Army, Lt. Gen Martin Luther Agwai. They said he might have taken the decision because he did not have a good picture of the number of residents involved. They said when he visited penultimate Sunday, the authorities of the barracks shielded him from coming to the Mammy market area.
They however, pleaded that he should come to the Mammy market area to see things for himself. “How can it be possible for three hundred and fifty thousand residents here to secure accommodation in Port Harcourt within three days?� One of them asked.
When Vanguard asked some of them on why after the war they had not chosen to relocate since the army only gave them temporary refuge because of the crisis then, some of them said they did not bother because at a time, the army started selling plots of land to them in the barracks, which they developed.
�The way the army went about it, you will never imagine that one day, you will be asked to go. They sold land spaces to us even if they said it was temporal, it gave us the picture that we could be here for years. 10×10 went for thirty thousand. I had all my children in this barracks. We brought light to this portion of the barracks. We have really invested here.�
Meanwhile, in a telephone interview with the Army PRO in Port Harcourt, Major Sagir Musa, he said traders were only given places to erect their stores. He said the action of the army became necessary because the Mammy market area the world over is not residential. He declined comment on whether the army would extend the period.
When Vanguard visited the barracks yesterday to assess the situation, many of civilian residents were seen discussing the directive in groups. A source told our reporter that they had dispatched a delegation to Abuja to persuade the Army high command to extend the date.