Security operatives numbering about 100 yesterday took over Nimo community in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State.

The operatives were in the community to stop a planned protest in which youths had gathered to register their displeasure over the activities of a few rich people in the community, who they accused of selling their communal land.

The sight of the fully armed security operatives, who were all looking combat-ready with hooded faces, sent fears into most members of the community, causing many to close their business places.

The operatives, who accosted the youths at Oye Nimo market, stopped them from marching round the community with their placards, insisting that they did not get clearance from the police to hold any protest.

However, the protesters insisted that they received clearance from the state police command to hold the protest.

Chux Okonkwo, a Lagos-based legal practitioner and former chairman of Nimo Town Development Union, Lagos branch, who participated in the protest, accused some powerful leaders in the community of being responsible for the attempt to stop the protest, adding that the persons involved had been selling communal land without authority.

He said: “A vast expanse of land known as Ana Owa, which was gotten by conquest during a war many decades ago, is being sold off today by some people in this community.

“That is why we want to protest, but you see the platoon of security men they brought to stop us. It is the same people that are selling off the land that are trying everything possible to stop us.”

Some of the placards they carried read: ‘Ana Owa is not for sale, stop selling off our inheritance’; you are supposed to be protecting us, not selling our property, among others. (THISDAY)

•Protesting Security operatives yesterday in Nimo community in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State.