The Njoku Chita family of Umuchima a community in Uburu, Ohaozara local Government Area of Ebonyi state, said it has been vindicated following broader outcry over continues land seizure by the minister of works Engr Dave Umahi in connivance with his elder brother Eze Laz Umahi and other traditional rulers .
The family also recalled how the works minister had equally encroached on their ancestral land, warning that the minister has demonstrated a penchant for land grabbing with impunity and sense of heartlessness.
The victims have also raised alarm in the media , accusing the minister of using his position both as Governor of Ebonyi state and current minister of works to forcefully take over their ancestral land for personal interests under the pretext of building public infrastructure .
The outcry currently generating concerns within the community has unsettled the minister and his compromised traditional rulers led by his elder brother Eze Laz Umahi and associates .
Seeing bodies of loved ones removed from their graves by bulldozers allegedly on the directives of the works minister has triggered a new wave of tension within the community .
On December 11, 2025, Sahara reporters,an online newspapers published bitter accounts by residents over alleged forced demolitions of their homes, ancestral compounds and farmlands, purportedly for government purposes and how the seizures led to severe psychological trauma, poverty and, in several reported cases and deaths.
The report said, in Umuchima, the most populous of the 14 communities that make up Uburu in Ebonyi State’s Ohaozara Local Government Area, had turned grief into a familiar visitor.
It highlighted that the community, once described by locals as a “hilarious, joyful community” had, according to the people, transformed into a place marked by fear, displacement and quiet mourning.
The story, which confirms the Njoku family’s early alarm says,”the troubles deepened shortly after David Nweze Umahi assumed office as governor in 2015. Today, even as he serves as Minister of Works, community members insist that a chain of demolitions, land seizures and violent confrontations, carried out under Dave’s authority, has left them traumatized, uprooted and bereaved.
“Their stories, shared through the United Umuchima Community General Assembly, paint a portrait of a people fighting for survival, memory, and dignity.”
The Njoku Chita family commended those who have finally found their voices and have commenced resistance to their ordeal and drawn attention to the sad development.
The family said it raised the alarm not just to protect their rightful ancestral land but also to serve as woke-up call, adding that finally, the scales have fallen from the blindfolded.
The family said whatever that is build on falsehood and ungodly tendencies have a short duration and will fizzle out in no-distant time.
It maintained that the on-going acts of suppression and oppression by the works minister and his followers offends humanity, against the natural course of justice and is clear violation of peoples fundamental rights to own properties including their ancestral land.
The family expressed shock that traditional rulers who should be custodians of integrity , justice and fairness have degenerated into defending lies and sponsors of media reports aimed at massaging the minister’s ego and betrays the reality .
The family said the current position of the victims clearly contradicts the position of the compromised traditional rulers led by the minister’s elder brother Eze Laz Umahi, rather exposes the display of zero integrity of the traditional rulers as people merely doing the bidding of Engr Umahi who has become excessively obsessed with landed properties for his personal and parochial use .
The family accused the traditional institutions of selling out cheaply and acting below all known principles of good leadership.
The Njoku Chita family reiterated that it would not succumb to any act of intimidation, stressing that all overtures and surreptitious attempts to seize their legitimate ancestral land will be resisted .
It described as shameful, the initial denials by the minister Engr Dave Umahi and attempts by the traditional rulers that people willfully surrendered their ancestral lands.
The family again ,said it’s an act of wickedness, selfishness, fragrant display of arrogance that public office holders cannot conduct themselves properly .
It insisted that the minister’s visit to their ancestral land was with a bad intention and advised him to stay clear .
Recall, the family wrote President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ,the Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) , The Inspector General of Police and other relevant authorities over the alleged land seizure and threat to life, an allegation the
works minister described as baseless and politically motivated .
The family had called on the minister’s elder brother Eze Laz Umahi and the traditional rulers involved in the arbitrary land seizure to desist forthwith .
They also called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and all the relevant authorities to call the minister to order .
