It was a day of wailing in Ulegun, a peaceful and growing community on the Benin-Abraka Road, Edo State, as thousands of home owners wailed and rolled on the ground and watched their life-time investments broken into rubbles and ruins by bulldozers allegedly ordered by the palace of the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II.
Plot after plot, the bulldozers crawled over 80 houses and other belongings worth billions of naira and threw the law-abiding home owners into the streets. Some of the victims said the leader of the chiefs from the palace and Secretary to the Benin Traditional Council, Mr. Frank Irabor, had no court order or judgment to execute such unprecedented illegality in a state where law and order reign supreme.
According to Mrs. Omoregie, “The Enogie inherited the land in dispute between the Ulegun community and Ukhiri community from his grandfather and the land belongs to the Ulegun community and not the Oba of Benin as claimed by the palace chiefs. It was, however, gathered that the Edo State Government has facilitated the release of the Ulegun community head and the chief priest.