The people of Umuenu community in Umuawulu, Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State have accused the state deputy governor, Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, and the Chief of Staff to the state governor, Ernest Ezeajughi, of alleged bias in a land dispute between their community and its two neighbours: Abo Ani Awgbu and Enugwu communities.

Members of Umuenu community, in their large number, during a peaceful demonstration on Tuesday, led by the town leaders, including the elderly, aged between 74 and 92 years, said that their ancestral land, called ‘Agu Udo/Agu Ofu land,’ has been overtaken by their neighbouring communities, thereby depriving them of farming and denying them their means of livelihoods over the years.

They specifically accused the deputy governor, Ibezim, who heads the Anambra State Boundary Committee of bias in the settlement of their 100-year-old land dispute, accusing him of being influenced by the CoS to the governor, Ezeajughi, who hails from Awgbu community.

The villagers marched round the community carrying different placards with various inscriptions such as: “Governor Soludo come to our rescue;’ ‘Abo Ani has encroached on our land:’ ‘We have Supreme Court judgment in our favour on the land;’ ‘Deputy Governor Onyekachukwu Ibezim is biased;’ ‘Deputy Governor is been influenced by the Chief of Staff who hails from Awgbu;’ ‘Deputy Governor is acting the scripts of Chief of Staff;’ ‘Soludo intervene before they take over our land;’ ‘We have no other land where we farm except the disputed land;’ among others.

Speaking during the demonstration, former chairman and spokesperson of Umuenu Umuawulu community, Humphrey Obi, narrated to South-East PUNC, that the land dispute began in 1921 specifically between Umuenu and Abo Ani Awgbu communities and the dispute was brought before the law courts in 1926 and decided by the Supreme Court in the 1960s.

Obi said Umuenu community, starting from the first court appearance in 1926, has won all the court case, including the one presided over and determine by the court of the defunct Republic of Biafra, Onitsha Judicial Division and the Supreme Court of Nigeria and others.

Obi informed that despite the various court rulings, the people of Abo Ani community continued encroaching upon their ancestral land and only recently approached the Anambra State Boundary Commission, headed by the deputy governor, Ibezim, and demanded the demarcation of the disputed land.

Obi said, “When we appeared before the state Boundary Commission headed by the deputy governor, we insisted that we are the rightful owners of the land and also believe that the judgment of the Supreme Court should be adhered to since it is still an extant law.

“But funny enough, apart from Abo Ani Awgbu community, our neighbouring Enugwu community, which bore witness against us during the court processes decades ago, has now made a U-turn and is also claiming that the land belongs to them, a claim which showed that they are being backed up by some powerful forces from the state government and the forces are the deputy governor and the CoS to the governor, among others.

“While interfacing between us and Abo Ani Awgbu community at the last meeting he presided over, the deputy governor told us that he had no business with the Supreme Court judgment and others and that he had not even gone through the documents we submitted. He said that he only wanted the demarcation of the land in dispute and that’s all.

“It is clear from his utterances that he is biased and influenced by the Chief of Staff who hails from Awgbu and he is trying to cede our land to Abo Ani Awgbu, and for this reason, we are calling on the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, to come to our rescue by cautioning his deputy to do the right thing in the matter as the head of the state boundary committee.

“It is the sacred duty of Anambra State Boundary Committee to follow and apply the said demarcation as judiciously fixed by the courts, as anything short of that would not only amount to Anambra State Boundary Committee reviewing and reversing the judgment of competent courts, but will amount to strict contempt of court.”

However, in a petition by the President and Secretary of Umuenu, Nze Okoye Godwin and Mr Nwafor Tochukwu, respectively, to Governor Soludo, they reminded the governor of the supremacy of law, stating that as such, he should not allow any influence from any quarters to cede their land or part of it to both Abo Ani Awgbu and Enugwu as they were trespassers already stopped by the courts.

Reiterating the danger inherent in ceding the land to he unauthorised communities, the duo urged Soludo to rather invite the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to interpret to them the implication of disobeying court order.

One of the villagers who spoke during the demonstration, 94-year-old Tochukwu Okoye, said, “I am surprised that Abo Ani Awgbu and Enugwu communities are now claiming the ownership of our ancestral land. Let us just think twice. I am calling on Soludo as a peaceful man to intervene in this situation.”

Another villager, 88-year-old Chief Johnson Nwafor, said, “I started cultivating on the disputed land with my father when I was six years old, I know everywhere there. We have no case with Enugwu and Abo Ani Awgbu, as far as that land is concerned. Our village is a peaceful village, we are the rightful owners of the land, and that is why we are avoiding the shedding of blood.”

A widow, Roseline Adobe, who also spoke, said, “I cultivated yam, cassava, among others on that land, but they came one day, chased us away while we were on the farm and destroyed all my crops, seized my hoe, knife. Now, I am left stranded because that is the only place I feed my children from.”

Another villager, Susan Ogbunike, said, “They stormed the farm where we are cultivating, chased us away, leveled all my farm, destroyed all my crops and as a; and I am yet to recover from it till today. Governor Soludo, we are calling you to come and help us.”

For Mrs Chinwendu Nwanaka, a widow, she said, “I went to my farm to get something for us to feed, but on getting there, all we cultivated yams, cassava, cocoyam were destroyed, when I got there I couldn’t get anything, I am calling on the governor to come to our rescue.”

However, when South-East PUNCH contacted the deputy governor, he debunked the allegations, noting that no decision had been taken on the disputed land. He said the people of Umuenu village were not sincere over the matter.

He said, “I brought in a change in our boundary committee. I took my time to go to these disputed areas physically to verify all sorts of claims. At least, we would be able to see every sign of demarcation like trees, rivers and landmarks that keep communities together.

“I went there and walked kilometres inside the bush and stood there. The two villages and a community – because it is between Enugwu village in Umuawulu, Umuenu village in Umuawulu and Abo Ani in Awgbu, all of them came for the case in my office and we fixed a date to go there, shockingly, Umuenu did not come there.

“There, we didn’t also want to take our own decision, so I called the leader of Umuenu and the lawyer representing them, only to find out that after all of us agreed to meet there, he went back, he told me that he decided later to go to court again.

“I made no statement there. All I told the people present was that we have seen things and that we will go back and take our decision, and that was all. I left. Whatever they are saying is just a matter of them not wanting to let peace reign. We have not released any official statement or taken any decision on the matter. They should wait for my decision first.

“I have not taken any final decision and they are carrying placards. I simply said that I have heard and I have seen the place but I have not made any decision.”

Asked if the Supreme Court judgment the people of Umuenu referred to was in favour of the village, the deputy governor said, “People lay claims to all sorts of things. Let them bring the Supreme Court judgment. You have this judgment and that judgment, we have lawyers.

“We, as the executive arm of the government, our statutory responsibility is also to protect the judgments of the judiciary. To even protect the laws put in place by the legislature because we control the forces to do that.

“I don’t have any piece of land there. I don’t want to have one and I am not from Umuawulu or Awgbu. So, when somebody is calling the Chief of Staff or anybody, the Chief of Staff did not go with us nor was he even aware that we were going there. (The PUNCH)

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