A number of communities in Enugu state have vowed to square up with the state government over what they described as the forceful takeover of their ancestral lands by the government without recourse to any form of negotiations.
An indigene said that crisis is already brewing at Ibagwa Nike, where the government is planning to take over the ancestral land of the Umuaneke Ode family with over 150 buildings already erected there just as the state government threatened to demolish the houses, claiming that the traditional ruler of the community gave it the land to build estate.
Reports making the rounds indicate that the state Governor, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, is allegedly coveting some of the land for his personal use, but officials of the state government have denied the allegation and said that the state government has followed all laid down rules to secure lands for development in the state.
An indigene of the state, Ikechukwu Ogbodo who claimed the government wanted to seize his land, said that since the Governor took over office in 2015 his administration has amassed lands in all the local government areas of the state.
“Since 2015, virtually all local government areas within the state and the communities therein have suffered one way or another in the way the state government grabs people’s land.
“Immediately the governor was sworn-in, he appointed an alleged relative, Onah Solomon, to become the state commissioner for lands. This he did for the sole purpose of acquiring and grabbing people’s land within the state in the name of building estates. In Enugu state now, there are several estates built by the state government from lands taken from people without compensation.
“No place is exempted from land grabbing. Even at the governor’s home town at Orba in Udenu local government areaof Enugu State, the state government went to a community called Owerre Ezeorba and collected 800 plots of land belonging to the community, which we heard the governor wants to use to build his residence.”
Ogbodo also alleged that the state government has annexed with force all the land within his residential premises at Enugu/Abuja Express road, Orba in Udenu local government area of Enugu state.
He said further that “At Nsukka, in Nsukka LGA of Enugu State, the government destroyed people’s crops and were about to start erecting buildings therein before the people rose up to challenge their evil inversion. It took serious protest by the people of Nguru Community to scuttle that move. Some personalities in this community were even promised plots of land for them to back out of the protest but because of their integrity, they refused the offer and stood strongly with their people because they were aware that it is business as usual,” Ogbodo said.
He alleged that the communities were poised to use every means possible to regain their land from the state government.
But a government official who didn’t want to be named denied these allegations and said that any land taken by the government was compensated for and that in its development programme, the government has embarked on building estates in different parts of the state to provide accommodation for the teeming residents and to provide affordable home for the citizens.
