Land Grabbing: Enugu Çommunity Petitions IGP, Fingers Ex-Governor

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Monday, December 25th, 2023

The people of Obollo Community in Udenu Council Area of Enugu State, South East Nigeria, have raised the alarm over a brewing communal clash that could consume many lives if not urgently nipped in the bud.

Our Correspondent reports that the community, which made this known through a petition written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Agbetokun, accused a former governor of the state of using his allies to instigate a crisis in the community in order to grab communal land.

The Donee, Power of Attorney, Oha Obollo in Council, Chief Matthew Agu, who signed the petition, dated December 21, 2023 made available to newsmen weekend in Enugu, said that the former governor, had solicited for a large expanse of land for the establishment of a dry sea port in Obollo-Afor, a request that was granted with the understanding that it was for public good.

“But as the years rolled by, we discovered that he had tricked us into donating the land. It was clear that he was planning to grab the property for his personal use. We kicked against it because that land is not for anybody’s personal use.

“Seeing that he could not achieve his plan of taking the land for himself, though the dry sea port story, he resorted to engineering one of the clans in the community to claim ownership of the property, against an existing court order indicating that the land belongs to the entire Oha Obollo and not one particular clan.”

Agu also narrated several attempts made by the ex-governor through a serving police DIG who hails from the same local government area to frustrate efforts to resolve the issue legally, alleging that the police in the state had been compromised.

“Inspector General, this is a high-level conspiracy against Obollo people to incriminate and cramp my people to jail in their own judgment. Recall that in my petition dated August 21, 2023, I told you about how a DIG, then a CP, had made himself available to make sure that my people of Obollo were dealt with criminally.

“Same with a former governor of the state who wanted this property for official purposes, but when the property was made available to him for that very purpose, he reneged and wanted to personalise our property using other guises.

“He has used his appointees and these he aided in the police force together with the judiciary to make sure that my people are destroyed to the extent that the police in Enugu turn a blind eye to whatever the judgement debtors do but flames to high heaven at the slightest opportunity to incriminate my people.

“In 2018, I, the leader of the community, was clamped to the prison yard, where I spent 8 days, and when the DPP wrote their report that I am the rightful owner of the property and brought me out of the prison yard, the then governor insisted that the then Attorney General must resign.

According to him, “This was to be, but for the intervention of late Justice C.C. Nweze of the Supreme Court.

“In my said petition of August 21, you recall how DIG Frank Mba stopped the police who came all the way from Zone 13 and made arrests of the suspects for arson, conspiracy, and willful damage to our property, ordered that the suspects should be released, and also boasted to the police officers that came for the arrest how he had masterminded the striking out of criminal charges against the suspects by the force CID Enugu Annex after he failed to stop them from investigation.

“I strongly suspect that the OC Legal has been compromised to ensure that the judgement debtors are in occupation while the judgement creditors go on a wild goose chase of seeking due process.”

He therefore, pleaded with the IGP to intervene so as not to allow the anger of members of the community to snowball into a full-blown crisis that could consume many lives and property.

Agu added that the police boss should investigate the matter and return the judgement creditors back to their property.