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From David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
Youths of Ifite Nteje are appealing to Anambra State Government to come to their aid, by constituting a judicial panel of inquiry to investigate what they call the extra judicial killings, police brutality and arson taking place in Nteje.
A lawyer, Mr Martins Okechukwu who spoke on behalf of the youths said this during a peaceful demonstration held by Ifite-Nteje youths, alleging that an Abuja based businessman and politician from Umuefi Nteje and his close aide are behind the crisis emanating from the community.
The lawyer alleged that those individuals were sponsoring terrorism in Nteje by arming youths involved in the sale of communal land renting crowd to scuttle police investigation and demanding from the various quarters of the community about six hundred plots of land
He said some of the youths opposed to the sale of their ancestral land were detained at a notorious police custody in Abuja known as Abattoir and many died in the process as a result of torture and brutality
He noted that the Inspector General of Police had directed the State Commissioner of Police to investigate the Nteje matter in the process some loyalists of the Chief were arrested with fire arms, adding that the floating of arms and ammunition was on the
high side in the community as a result of total breakdown of law and order necessitated by the indiscriminate selling of ancestral land.
The lawyer said one of the cronies was at present parading himself as Chairman of Ifite-Nteje land management committee.
Also speaking, Mr. Lazarus Aniefuna said two of his houses were raised down and for the past three months, he had been in exile, while his family was suffering, saying that for peace to reign in the community, Ifite-Nteje people should be allowed to manage themselves, without interference from other quarters.
He called on the State government to restore sanity in the community by deploying law enforcement agents to the place.
A youth leader, Mr Chinenye Ekwenze said he knew those who set his house on fire in October 2021, adding that he has been homeless since then.
Mr Arinze Akwaeze said he belonged to the State vigilante group but could not return to Nteje again due to crises as some of the hired thugs were after him.
In his reaction, the President-caretaker Committee of Nteje Town Union, Chief Beneth Chinweze, said the community was in disarray due to police intimidation and despite efforts to make the zone 13 police intervene in what was happening in Nteye, that there was no headway.
Chief Chinweze noted that charges of murder and illegal possessive of fire arms were levied against innocent people to ensure that they were detained without bail.
When contacted on phone, one of the community leaders, Chief Nwakalor said he was neither directly nor indirectly connected to all the crisis in Nteje, adding that there was chieftaincy tussle in the community and he was neither the complainant nor the defendant in the matter.
He dissociated himself from the burning of the house of Barrister Okechukwu, who he said had problem with his elder brother and the people of his village over the sale of land.
He challenged his accusers to show evidence of any money paid into his account from the sale of communal land.
