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From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
At least 16 families in Obosi community, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, under the aegis of Obosi Family Landowners, recently staged a peaceful protest against the activities of land-grabbers and speculators who have been trespassing on their land.
Giving a kind of red card to the land-grabbers, they warned those involved in the nefarious acts to steer clear of their family land or face legal actions and other consequences arising from their encroachment into Obosi family land without their consent.
The family landowners, who staged a peaceful demonstration within the large expanse of land belonging to various families in Obosi located at Okpoko, Mkpikpa, Ugbongene and Ugbulor layouts of Obosi, chanted solidarity songs while holding placards with various inscriptions.
The demonstrators, who were representatives of various families who own land in the area they named, took off from the palace of the traditional ruler of Obosi Ancient Kingdom, Igwe Chidubem Iweka III, and headed to the area, after they were cautioned by the palace secretary to the Obosi monarch, Ugonabo Shedrack Okenwa, against violence or any conduct likely to cause a breach of peace in the process of their demonstration.
Some of the inscriptions on their placards read: “Land-grabbers stay away from our land,” “These lands belong to different families in Obosi, including Umuocholikwom family,” “Umuorakposim family asks landgrabbers to stay away,” “Umuopi, Ekwulugo family asks you land-grabbers to stay away from Obosi land,” and “Ikeabanife family states: We will not allow any person or group to encroach into our land,” among others.
Chairman of Obosi landowners, Nze Chinedu Okafor, said they were flabbergasted when they caught the land-grabbers clearing their lands with swamp buggy excavators without authorisation of any sort.
He disclosed that, on interrogation, the unidentified land-grabbers claimed that the lands were allocated to them by the past administration in the state, adding that it was at this stage that they unleashed Obosi youths on them and they fled.
“Obosi is a great town and we seek peace at all times. We always exercise restraint before we unleash our anger on anybody but when we are pushed to the wall, then we will be forced to do that. That’s why they call us Obosi.
“The 1978 Land Use Act does not permit the government to acquire lands and allocate same to unknown persons without the consent of the original landowners and we say enough is enough. We just woke up one morning and discovered the presence of swamp buggy excavators destroying our raffia palms and other economic trees on our lands.
“When we approached the workers who could not even mention their name or company name, they said government gave it to them for investment. Information we gathered was that the immediate past government in Anambra has a hand in it but we are calling on the new Soludo administration to address the situation now.
“Please, we plead with Anambra Statw government to call those faceless land-grabbers to order to avoid catastrophe. We are not willing to concede our land without due process or our consent,” he said.
Tochukwu Amobi from Umuocholikwom family and secretary of all Obosi family landowners, wondered how some people could just get up and enter someone’s land to develop without the owner’s consent. He said the various families were in agreement that they never gave any group or person authority to develop their land for them.
He said the speculators have been operating in a faceless manner but the Obosi people are now prepared to smoke them out and deal decisively with them.
Tochukwu Obienu, chairman, Ime Obosi Youths, said the information on the activities of land speculators and grabbers was brought to his leadership by the various families that owned lands in the aforementioned areas.
He said the youths monitored their complaints and confirmed them to be true but he said that they are leaving a message to the perpetrators to retreat or they face the music of the youths.
“We cannot leave an inch of our land to any land speculator or anybody other than the family owners. Any attempt to bend us shall be resisted with the last drop of our blood. We want government to checkmate the impending doom that will befall the perpetrators. The other day, my boys seized their excavators and that was just a warning because they will not contain our wrath if we decide to deal with them,” he said.
