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From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
No fewer than 80 combined security operatives, consisting of police, soldiers, civil defence and vigilante operatives stormed the area to stop and disperse protesters at Nimo community in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The protesters had earlier assembled at the major roads in continuation of their protest against the sale of community land by suspected land grabbers/speculators in the area when the team of security operatives fully armed intercepted them and stopped the peaceful protest.
The youths had gathered to register their displeasure, over the activities of a few rich people in the community in grabbing their communal land.
But on the sight of the fully armed security operatives, who were all fierce looking combat ready with hooded faces sent fears into most members of the members of the community who retreated their movement.
The security operatives who accosted the youths at Oye Nimo stopped them from marching round the community with their placards, insisting that they did not get clearance from the police to hold any protest. The security operatives insisted the protest should be shelved for a later date.
The protesters who spoke to journalists insisted that they duly received clearance, and that the protest was against the sale of a large parcel of land in the community, known as Ana Ama.
Though they were stopped from undertaking the protest march, they however displayed placards with various inscriptions.
Some of the placards with inscriptions 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”.
A Lagos based legal practitioner and former chairman of Nimo Town Development Union, Lagos branch Barr Chux Okonkwo who spoke at the protest accused some powerful leaders in the community of being responsible for the sales of their inheritance, but did not name them.
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.
“They said they have realised N900million from sales of the land, even though no one authorized them to sell it, and they now claim they have spent N1.2billion, which means we owe them about N300,000. They can not even account for what they did with the funds” he said.
