. as land owners petition Buhari, COAS, IGP, NASS over attempt by Ivite-Umueri elites to dispossess them of their lands
By CHUKS EKE
The concerned citizens of Ivite village, Umueri in Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra state, bonafide owners of the portion of lands where the on-going Anambra International Cargo/Passenger Airport is located at Umueri, have petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari, asking him to save them from an attempt by those they identified as elites to forcefully grab and claim ownership of their lands.
The petitioners who identified themselves as individual family land owners of Odachala camp of Ogbu Village, Ogunzu Camp of Ogbu Village, Akpaka Umuaama Ogbu portion and Umuatuolu portion, Odonete Umuatuolu, Ananeanya Umuatuolu, Obodo-Bunee Camp Umuatuolu, Anamachioji Iruewugbu Umuatuolu and Oguguoma Camp all in Ogbu Village, Umuatuolu Village and Mgbede Village have their own lands which made up the Ivite Umueri quarter.
They contended that the above-mentioned lands are owned by various individual families and not the communal lands owned by the Ivite Umueri, adding, “we state here that we owned the lands jointly and we donated same to Anambra State Government for the construction of the Mega Anambra International Cargo and Passengers Airport at Ivite Umueri.
In the petition jointly signed by Ajamma Akwu, Sunday Nchie, Nmee Adee, Tochi Nmee, Augustine Nchekwu and Tochukwu Okwo for Umuatuolu camp; Emma Udenma, Ekene Ekwenugo and Eche Udenma for Ogbu camp; Okwee Emeka, Ifeanyi Nkwado, Chijindu Okwata, Onyeka Okuee and Izu Udekwe for Mgbede camps respectively, the petitioners lamented that some selfish indigenes of Ivite Umueri who call themselves the Elites are planning to take over the lands from them through intimidation.
In the petition also copied to the Chief of Army Staff, COAS; Chief of Naval Staff, Inspector-General of Police, IGP; Director-General, Department of State Services, DSS; The Senate President and the Speaker of House of Representatives, they noted that they were compelled to write this petition because the land grabbers who are also serving and retired officers of the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police, are planning to cook up an unfounded allegations against them who are the individual lands owners of Ivite Umueri.
Captioned: “Save-Our-Souls from Ivite-Umueri elites who constituted themselves into a land grabbing syndicate, the petitioners lamented that the serving and retired military and police officers are also planning to cook up an unfounded allegations against them in order to intimidate, harass, humiliate, incarcerate and maltreat them into grabbing our lands which is contrary to the Rules of Engagement, RoE and conduct of Nigerian Army and Nigeria Police Force”.
“The lands mentioned above are owned by individual various families and they are not the communal land owned by the Ivite Umueri quarter. It is worthy of note that all the above-mentioned camps are the individual family lands we inherited from our fore-fathers and all these are not jointly owned by Ivite quarter of Umueri in Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra state of Nigeria”, the petitioners further lamented.
“We also want to state it clearly that those officers normally boast that they have contacts of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and that of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and as such, they can do and undo. The so-called Elites are also boasting that nobody will question their illegal activities in Ivite Umueri in so far as they have upper hands from higher Army and Nigeria Police formations in Nigeria”.
Again, we want to state that the land matters are pure civil in nature and not criminal. Therefore, we are appealing to the above-mentioned relevant authorities to use their esteemed good offices to direct the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu and the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, AIG in-charge of Zone 13 Zonal Command Headquarters at Ukpo, Anambra state to desist from involving themselves in a civil matter of this nature as it amounts to unprofessional conduct”.
“Suffice it to say that as law-abiding citizens, we don’t want to take up arms and go to war with anybody to avoid free flow of blood on the streets, hence we decided to use this medium to air our grievances to allow peace reign”.
