By Jonathan Lois
Chairman of the Obeagu Town Union Litigation Committee of Obeagu Awkunanaw local government of Enugu State, Chiene Chiene, has expressed confidence that the the community will get justice in the case of alleged police harassment as well in a petition presented to the House of Representatives.
The community had petitioned the parliament over allegations of land grabbing and police harassment which has led to the destruction of property as well as the loss of lives by certain interests.
When the House Committee of Public Petitions entertained the matter, it’s Chairman, Mike Etaba, struck out the case of land grabbing, saying it was before a court of competent jurisdiction.
He however assured that the issue of intimidation and harassment by the police would be followed up to the letter.
Chiene said, “We presented our petition asking the national assembly to come to our rescue to stop the police intimidation and harassment. That is why we went there so that whether this issue of whether or not our land was legally acquired should be put to rest. They are forceful land grabbers. We are happy with the situation as they are sending their legal consultant to do some underground assessments of the situation. So we believe very strongly that we would get what we are looking for which is justice and peace given the facts before them.”
He said the police not be used to harass them as the matter is in court.
He said there was a siege laid against the community at large as a result of the conspiracies and plans orchestrated principally by the trio of Dr. Festus Uzor, Kingsley Eze and Bar. Gozie Okoye to forcefully take over their land.
The petition presented to the House rear, “We must state that the attempt to forcefully take over and sell off our ancestral land was hatched sometime in 2009 by the ‘three musketeers’ named above. The question is what is their connection in relation to this issue at stake?
“As earlier stated, sometime in 2009, Dr. Festus Uzor was the Commissioner for Lands, Enugu State during the tenure of Bar. Sullivan Chime, Bar Gozie Okoye was the Branch Manager of Diamond Bank, Enugu while Kingsley Eze of Private Estates Int’l West Africa, (PEIWA) who was hardly known then, apparently dangled this heinous project or what we could regard as ‘operation take over Obeagu land’ to the other two who gladly saw the potentials of the ‘deal’ and keyed into it.
“Thus, Dr. Festus Uzor used his office as the Commissioner for Lands, and did sign the letter of offer to PEIWA, then Barr Gozie Okoye used his office to secure a Two-Billion-naira loan facility secured with our land, and thereafter hell was let loose, and our community became a battle ground for every land grabber to unleash their selfish pangs against us. It is needless to say that since this conspiracy was hatched and purportedly executed, we as a community have known no peace; as we have been continually victimized, dehumanized, degraded, incarcerated and made to suffer helplessly.
“We pray you to come to our rescue and protect us from the stranglehold of those named persons, particularly, Kingsley Eze of PEIWA, who have left nothing to spare in their bid to emasculate and annihilate us to enable them take over our land. We must not also fail to report the activities and oppressive conducts of SP Chidiebere Ijomah, DCP Olasoji Akinbayo and the Area Commander Metro, ACP Sogbeba Dulphine, who are being used by the land grabbers to oppress, intimidate and cow us to submit willy-nilly to the illegal acquisition and take-over of our ancestral land.”
The community prayed the House to stop the menace of the allegd land grabbers and save our community from the invasion and forceful takeover of our ancestral land.
“We are convinced you have the capacity to draw the attention of the Enugu State Government to the excesses of the officials of ECTDA who are being used by the land grabbers to forcefully dispossess us of our ancestral land. The Enugu State Government must bring an end to these unwholesome activities of these land grabbers in order to pave way for the peaceful development of the state.
“We have it on good authority that because the fraudulent loan as granted by Gozie Okoye and his cohorts to PEIWA, secured with our land, which loan has obviously been mismanaged, the AMCON may get involved, which implies that we may permanently lose our land if nothing is done now. We implore you therefore to invite the NDIC to investigate the circumstances which led to the said loan and the use of our land as security without our knowledge or consent.
“Lastly, we also pray you to direct the police high command to apply appropriate sanctions against the above named officers who have clearly abused their offices in their pursuit of their selfish interest or personal aggrandizements,” the community requested.
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