Obeagu and Amechi Uwani communities in Awkunanaw, Enugu South Local Government Area of Enugu State have staged massive protests over the take over of their ancestral land through fraudulent means by Enugu State Government.
The protesters alongside their masquerades barricaded the main road to the city, with placards which reads: “Ugwuanyi leave our land for us; Ugwuanyi leave our land alone; This is our ancestral land, we have no other place to go.”
The community accused the governor of using his agents and surrogates to illegally acquire their land through the back door.
They vowed to resist any attempt by the state government to turn them into destitutes in their own home.
Speaking on the purpose is the protest, the traditional ruler of Obeagu, Awkunanaw community, Mike Nnukwu said it was heart breaking for a few individuals to conceive the idea of grabbing an entire community’s inheritance.
“It breaks my heart to stand here to speak to you over something that our forefathers hoped will bring us shared prosperity but is now the source of shared pain and anguish.
“It really breaks my heart to be speaking to you over what should have been developed into an orchard of prosperity for our people but which has become the albatross of our affliction
“Since 2009, our people have been randomly arrested, imprisoned and even murdered because some persons who had the privilege of leadership decided that it was our ancestral heritage that should become their gold mine.”
Nnukwu informed that the original land proposed for the permanent site of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) was 318 hectares by the former Anambra State Governor, Sen. Jim Nwobodo.
“However, many years later, after Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani moved the site of the proposed University to his hometown in Agbani, some people miraculously expanded the proposed 318 hectares to become 1097 hectares brazenly covering even a portion of my palace – one of our traditional symbols of unity as well as other places of traditional value
“We cried to this Government of His Excellency Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and that Certificate of occupancy was graciously revoked, ” he said.
“Earlier this year in a stunning consent judgement, we were greeted with another attempt to place a legal seal over the quantum illegality by these land grabbers, even when we applied to join the suit but were not heard.
“If they had stopped there, we would have followed the same processes of court which we have initiated in numerous suits, including our application to join the very suit wherein which the consent judgement was acquired, to protect the legal rights of our people
“We are now being led like hapless bondmen to the slaughter as the series of announcements on print media and on the radio suggest that they have, this time, conscripted the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority to finalize their planned subjugation.”
He however, said he had the confidence of the character of the leadership of the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority.
“I understand that the Chairman is one person who appreciates the position of legal jurisprudence especially with court orders specifically ordering against any demolitions in our place.
“We have opened communications with them and hope that they will not present themselves as tools to facilitate anarchy in Enugu state.
“I can also confidently note that if there is one legacy assiduously pursued by the administration of Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, it has been one of sustained peace within the state.
“Any suggestion that this administration will support any action that will plunge our community into turmoil and guaranteed anarchy is therefore totally alien.
“It is also near impossible to imagine that the current government would wish to usher in the incoming administration with a parting trojan horse of crisis.
“It is my prayer that those elected and appointed to serve us, continue to hearken to the voice of reason, so that they do not leave us worse off than they met us, ” he said.
He advised the Youths to shun acts capable of truncating the peace of the state while all efforts were being made to put things in proper perspective.
He said: “I share in your pain but consider it important to stress that you remain peaceful and law-abiding and that as your leaders, we will continue to do our best to ensure that we preserve our heritage until we can hand it over to the next generation as our fathers handed it over to us.
“I also reiterate my earlier appeal from this morning to security agencies.
“I implore them to decline to be used as tools to arbitrarily arrest our people, as has been the case before now, tacitly providing cover for illegality, ”
On his part, one of the protesting indigenes of Amechi Uwani, Chief Sunday Nnaji lamented that he and his people had no other place to go if their family land and structures already erected in them was forcefully taken from them.
He said” there is nothing like Centenary. It is a fraud. It was the Managing Director of Private Estate International West Africa Ltd, Kingsley Ezeh, who later changed to Tenecce that concocted the name Centenary.
“We will die to defend our land. It is our inheritance, we have no where to go,” he said.
In reaction, the Public Relations Officer of Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, Mr Gideon Ezeh said that they they were invited by Private Estate International West Africa to undertake the enforcement of a court order on the land.
He said that those whose houses were marked for demolition were guilty of some infractions against the development plan of the area.
When reminded that some of the owners of the houses had documents approved by the ECTDA, Ezeh insisted that those documents were fake.
The Enugu Capital Development Authority had issued a 7 day ultimatum asking the aborigines to vacate the marked area.
Comment here