Oba Indigenes Protest, Encroachment, Property Demolition by Land Grabbers

By Uzo Ugwunze

Indigenes of Ogwugwu and Umueze villages of Oba in Idemili South Local Government Area, Anambra state, have raised an alarm alleging that land grabbers, aided by security operatives and suspected armed thugs, were encroaching on their ancestral lands, an act they said resulted in the demolition of their homes.

They put the figure of such demolished houses at about 70. During a protest on Friday near Oba international market, the displaced indigenes alleged that the demolition had gone on for some four days previous, forcing the residents to flee their ancestral land/homes for safety and shelter. Armed with placards that read “Save our soul, our land is not for sale, save our land from land grabbers, land grabbers are demolishing homes, Stop selling our land-to-land agents, among others, the protesters, through their chairman, Hon. Barrister Chuba Oranusi, gave a background to the incursion into their community.

Oranusi admitted that the community ceded a portion of the land to the 1999/2003 Chinwoke Mbadinuju Anambra State Government, which proceeded to give same to a land development firm, Bukham Nigeria LTD, for the construction of a market.
He said the boundaries bordering the ceded land were clearly specified and known to the community and government even as only N72 million naira (out of the agreed N144 million compensation) had, so far, been paid.

In his words, “they (Bukham Nigeria LTD) never commerced work on the project until now that they came with bulldozers, pay loaders, some police and military personnel, armed thugs, among others, and commenced encroachment on our land and demolishing any building within reach, exceeding the portion given to them.

For four days now, they have continued the encroachment and demolition of structures, including the destruction of our wives’ farmlands and economic trees. Most of us have become homeless with 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 N10million, N5million, as the case may be, for a plot. So many were beaten up when they approached them to know what was amiss,” he alleged.
“We urge Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo to come to our rescue as we have been rendered homeless and the encroachment is still ongoing. They are not even developing the market they claimed they wanted to build
“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,” the chairman stated.

Vice chairman to Oranusi, Chief Sir Emeka Motanya, said that when, in 2019, the land developer construction firm called the community for the payment of the compensation, the community reminded them that they must not go beyond the Ekulo stream road limitation ceded to government from the onset.
“But now they have gone beyond it and even chased us out from our residence, made us to become homeless because they have demolished our buildings, using the military, police and armed thugs.

“For four days now, military, police and armed thugs, some are familiar faces, have continued to invade and demolish our houses. 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.
“Let them leave us alone and develop the portion we agreed with them. Governor Soludo should please come to our rescue before they kill us all and take over our land,” he pleaded.
Also the youth leader, Mr. Uchenna Obiegbu, said that the fear of uncertainty had gripped the community due to the demolition.
He vowed: “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.”

In its reaction, the spokesman of the construction firm, Mike Egbule, stated that the firm never went beyond the portion given to it and that, rather, it was the people of the community that encroached on the firm’s portion of the land. “So what we are doing is to recover those land they encroached upon.

We have the master plan of the land and the team of surveyors were with us to ensure we only recover our land,” he stated.