Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) during the 2023 general elections has called on government and its agencies to show compassion to poor Nigerians whose home are being demolished across the country.
Mr Obi, who made the call on Thursday through series of tweets in his X handle, said the ongoing demolition across the states of the federation as the economic hardship bites harder is ill-timed.
In recent weeks, there have been demolition of residential buildings said to have contravened the master plan of cities and built on drainage channels, an action that has rendered hundreds of families homeless.
The former governor who expressed sadness at the developments, urged governments at all levels to show compassion to poor Nigerians who are “already battling with multi-dimensional Poverty.
“What a responsive government should be doing under the current harsh economic conditions in the country is to come up with measures aimed at alleviating the people’s hardships and to carry out measures that will take more people out of poverty.
“Even if there are some violations as the governments are claiming, this critical time is not auspicious for such an exercise knowing the hardship in the land and the consequences it will have on the poor who are struggling to make ends meet with their little resources.
“The poor in our midst who are putting their meager resources are going through very severe financial stress that should not be multiplied further. In some cases, the properties being demolished are the life time savings and retirement abodes of the aged and incapacitated.
“My appeal therefore is for the respective governments involved in this act to consider the hardship in the country and try and put a human face to their actions. While we should enforce sensible regulations, all actions of government must show compassion.”
