During the protest, some of the protesters carried placards with various inscriptions including "We the people of Umueze/Ogwugwu Oba did not give our land to any Group” “Umueze/Ogwugwu Oba land is not vacant. Intruders leave our home stay alone” “Government of Anambra State come to our aid at Umueze/Ogwugwu Oba is boiling” “Land grabbers are demolishing our home stay”, among others.
Residents of Ogwugwu/Umueze Oba community in the Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, have protested against alleged encroachment on their ancestral lands and demolition of about 70 of their houses by alleged land grabbers working for the state government.
During the protest, some of the protesters carried placards with various inscriptions including "We the people of Umueze/Ogwugwu Oba did not give our land to any Group” “Umueze/Ogwugwu Oba land is not vacant. Intruders leave our home stay alone” “Government of Anambra State come to our aid at Umueze/Ogwugwu Oba is boiling” “Land grabbers are demolishing our home stay”, among others.
The Chairman of the community, Barrister Chuba Oranusi, said that the community ceded a portion of the land to the Anambra State Government under former Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju administration, who then gave it to a land development firm, Bukham Nigeria LTD, for the construction of a market.
They agreed that the construction firm would not go beyond the boundary given to them by the villagers, adding that the villagers were given what he described as a paltry compensation of N72 million out of N144 million they promised to pay.
"They never came back to commerce work on the project until now that they came with bulldozers, loaders, military, police, armed thugs, among others, and commenced encroachment on our land and demolishing any building within reach, exceeding the portion given to them.
“They have continued the encroachment and demolition of structures, including destruction of our wives' farmlands and economic trees. Most of us have become homeless and have nowhere to run to.
"What you see here are touts, people who use government apparatus to acquire community land. But we will not allow them, let them just develop the portion we gave to them, we are not interested in the compensation.
"What they do is that as they demolish they call buyers and sell at N10 million, N5 million, as the case may be, for a plot. So many were beaten up when they approached them to know what was amiss.
"Let them develop the area we gave to them and leave our community land for us. The destruction is unquantifiable as it was a land where we buried our grandfathers. We were born in this land and have lived here since Adam,” he said.
Also speaking, the Vice Chairman of the community, Sir. Emeka Motanya, said that “Military, police and armed thugs, some of whom are familiar faces, have continued to invade and demolish our houses, and when I asked why the demolition, I was beaten black and blue, I have been hospitalised for days. The house of our chairman was the first to be demolished.”
Also, the community youth leader, Uchenna Obiegbu said, "We can never be alive and see land grabbers and greedy land speculators confiscate our fatherland. I have just been withholding our youths to avoid bloodshed but that has a limit."
When contacted, Mr. Michael Egbule, the spokesman of the construction firm, MICPAN Integrated Services (Nig) Limited, told SaharaReporters that the firm was just a developer working for the state government which had duly paid the community for the land.
“The issue there is not us; it is the state government, Ministry of Lands trying to recover their lands. They have paid compensation on that land. The Commissioner for Lands has said that they are only recovering their lands that they have paid compensation for.
“No matter how long the government leaves their property, when they need it, they will come for it. They (the people of the community) have been saying that MICPAN did one thing or the other but forget that, it is the government that is doing that. It is the government that is trying to recover the land they paid compensation for.
“We are developers and whatever they are doing there; they carry us along and show us their lands. The Survey-General sent a representative and they came there and with the villagers and their Chief and Oranusi, we went round the land and they did demarcation. All the coordinates are there.”