Landowners in Fountain City Estate, Umuodafe, Ibusa community in Oshimili North of Delta State have appealed to the state Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, to release to them their land recently seized by government aides as “New Year’s gift”.

Government’s bulldozers allegedly demolished houses in the estate. Chairman of the landlords and landladies’ association of the community, Owen Ebubechukwu, who made the appeal on behalf of others, yesterday, after an emergency meeting, said the development was seriously affecting them.

“We are begging Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to release our land as New Year’s gift. The demolition is affecting our health as well,” he said, adding that it was capable of scaring investors away from the community.

“With the things going on now, it seems the state is now lawless; but we know Okowa is a medical doctor and he was a lawmaker too. So, he knows the law and we are begging him to release our land and God will bless him as he complies.”

He added: “All the buildings in the community have been brought down by government, despite the fact that we bought from rightful owners. We surveyed and lodged necessary documents at Ministry of Lands and Survey. The records are there. The said land was free as of the time we bought it.

“But after years of acquiring the lands, we started receiving phone calls that government was pulling our buildings down. We went to the place and started shouting and weeping to no avail.”

Another landowner and a property developer, Akeem Lasisi, said Okowa government took over their buildings without any prior notice. Lasisi, an engineer, lamented that government claimed it acquired the land from their owners for years, bulldosed the whole place and forcefully took over the land.

A widow, Juliana Ogbuawu, whose property was also demolished, cried out: “I have invested all my life savings to acquire the land and losing it is hard to bear because it is just like they finished my entire life.

When contacted on the issue, the Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Kate Onianwa, said: “Government had acquired the land since 2011.”The state Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, also corroborated the commissioner of land, saying: “Government had long time ago acquired the entire expanse of land in that area.

According to Aniagwu the land is quite massive, and since government has not started development, there was need to de-acquire part of it and give it back to the community, leaving some part to address the needs of the people for overriding public interest.

“After doing that, a number of persons now want to go beyond the de-acquired land and now begin to eat into the one that was not de-acquired.” (The Guardian)

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