Land Grabbing Allegation: Original Owners Exonerate Ex-Minister Prof Nnaji

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Saturday, September 21st, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Contrary to media reports that former Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji has been enmeshed in a land grabbing scandal, the Leadership of Onuogba-Nike Community in Enugu East Council Area of Enugu State and owners of the said land have dismissed the allegation, declaring that he lawfully acquired the property.

Making the clarification in Enugu while speaking with newsmen, Spokesman of the Community and the immediate past President General of the locality, Chief Emmanuel Uboshi, said that the protesting Ezza Nkomoro people were settlers who had migrated from Ezza in the present Ebonyi State.

.He maintained that the people of Ezza Nkomoro who are laying claim to the land are mere settlers in Onuogba Nike and as such do not have the right to claim any land in the community.

.Lawyer to Prof Nnaji Barrister Banjamin Nwobodo, who also spoke during the media briefing, equally presented documents indicating that his client had legally acquired the said land from the original owner.

.Nwobodo explained that the people of Ezza Nkomoro who are laying claim to the land are mere settlers in Onuogba Nike and as such do not have the right to claim any land in the community.

He noted that the parcel of land they were claiming was never part of the land which was rented to them several years ago when they migrated to the community.

“The error I want to correct is to make emphasis that Barth Nnaji is not a land grabber. He bought his land legitimately. Our tenant is from Ezza Nkomoro in Ezzagu.

“They came to our place to dwell for a reason. Our people gave them a portion of land to live in” he stated.

“But they later started claiming that the entire Onuogba belongs to them. The land sold to Alinta is not the same place given to them. They are claiming that they will take over our entire land.

“The same people who gave them the land went to court in 1974 and got a favorable judgment in 2004. They went to the Court of Appeal and lost.

“Then went to the Supreme Court, even then they consulted their people in 2015, they were asked to remain within the portion they were given and abide by the tenancy agreement but they refused.

“They are the land grabbers. Anywhere they are they would like to take their land. All we are asking is that they should remain within the area where we have them.

Presenting legal documents proving the acquisition of the land, Nwobodo further stated that the Ezza Nkomoro community were never owners of the land as indicated by documents presented by the people of Onuogba Nike.

“As soon as the property was transferred to Prof Nnaji, he went in to exercise ownership of the land. These people now brought an application for stay of execution.

According to the lawyer , “That was when we came in to represent him. Though he was not a party to the suit.

“It was the original owners of the land (the sons of Alinta) that transferred the property to him. When the court saw that there was no merit in the application, the court dismissed it.

“What the Nkomoro people now did was to begin to sell the property to strangers. Not that they were building their own houses.

“That is a very clear act of unlawfulness. So, Prof said enough is enough, you must get out of my land.

“It is not fair when you know that this land does not belong to you, you begin to contest it. Why must you begin to sell when you know that judgment has been entered against you he asked?

He posited that “the houses that were demolished did not belong to the Ezza Nkomoro people. They belonged to the strangers that the Nkoromo people sold land to.”

Also speaking , the Vice Chairman, Caretaker Committee of Nkomoro Onuogba Nike Development Union, Agbom Nweke said that it was true that they migrated to Onuogba in 1956 from Ezza when they were brought in to help the community wage invaders.

He admitted that the portion of land sold to Alinta was not part of the land which they were given to settle on by the community but that he encroached on their own part of the land in the process of surveying the property.

The Community however, frowned at the perceived misrepresentation of facts on the land issue by those they claimed are trying to tarnish the image of the former Nigeria’s Minister of power.