Muwakkil agreed that the NAACP had stayed longer than the lease agreement would allow.
"We definitely have been in violation. The lease agreement, it says four years, this might be our 13th year," Muwakkil said. "That wasn't the issue on us being evicted. It was the method that we cared about, that did not sit right with us."
The NAACP was among five entities that had overstayed the four-year maximum set by the Fort Myers CRA .
At its Feb. 17 meeting, commissioners voted to end the tenancy of the five groups effective March 31. The motion to terminate the leases was made by member Liston Bochette, who said that the policy should apply to every tenant equally. It was passed unanimously, with council member Terolyn Watson absent.