From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Acclaimed land owners at Fountain City, a developing community in Ibusa, Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State, are not happy.
They are about losing their investments in plots of land and emerging buildings, in some cases, in the vast area stretching from Immigration Office to the back of Asaba Airport, along the Ibusa-Asaba road.
In a recent protest, the landowners said they bought the plots of land from Umuodafe community in Ibusa with their hard-earned money either through borrowing or through the sale of other properties to raise the funds.
The placard-carrying protesters said they did not buy the plots by accident but that Umuodafe properly advertised for the sale, which attracted them as subscribers in recent years.
Now they are accusing the Delta State Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Mrs. Kate Onianwa, who hails from Ibusa, of clandestine moves to dispossess them of their property.
Spokesman for the protesters, Mr. Owen Ebubechukwu, said they were over 2,000 owners in the over 200 hectares of land affected by the development.
Ebubechukwu said they resorted to protest as the last option to draw the attention of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to their ordeal, and for the governor to call Mrs. Onianwa to order, insisting that her action was not in the interest of the state government.
“Umuodafe, from Ibusa, advertised that they were selling this place; it was properly surveyed and mapped out. The subscribers came and started buying one after another; it is not just one person’s affair, we are over 2,000 landowners here.
“After sometime, some of us started developing. But before then, we went to the Ministry of Lands and Survey, surveyed, lodged and had this thing flied, it went through that government has no presence or interest here.
“All of a sudden, we saw bulldozers and earth-moving equipment destroying buildings and fences without any notice whatsoever. So, we ran to the community and they said they were not the ones doing the destruction. We went to the appropriate authority to come and help us, we went to Ministry of Lands and they said they were de-acquiring.
“In the first place, Umuodafe has no land here anymore, they sold their rights years back. We have gone to places and we discovered that government has no hand in this recent development because government has a process.
“We discovered that people came together to rustle, grab and take away our land that we legitimately bought from Umuodafe community.
“We are asking Governor Okowa to tell Onianwa to leave our land alone, if they want land, they should come to us that bought legitimately from Umuodafe.
“We have gone to her office to beg her, and said, if the land is de-acquired, everybody’s interest would be protected, but you and I know that things are no longer working in this country. Our system is down, bad and in quagmire.”
Also speaking, Mrs. Rose Okolie insisted that they did not invade the area to start development but that they followed the normal processes.
On his part, Mr. Akeem Lasisi said the experience has been terrible, adding that they only woke one morning to see that the entire area was being bulldozed.
“They created a road close to the existing road to show that their intention is not normal. There is an existing road, this place is well plotted out, why is it that government is creating another road? We are so disappointed. Things are not supposed to be done like this.
“We bought this land legitimately. If government is interested, they should interface with us directly, not with the sellers. We are frustrated, we are not happy,” Lasisi fumed.
Reacting, the Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, said the area in question belonged to the state government, adding that his counterpart in the ministry of land, Onianwa, was acting on behalf of government and not in her personal capacity, as alleged by the protesters.
Aniagwu stated that the vast area was acquired by government several years ago for overriding public interest, adding that people started encroaching on it as government did not develop it.
He explained that the present administration decided to de-acquire part of the land and give back to the community to fast-track development.
According to him, however, those who were protesting had encroached on the area that was not de-acquired, even as he challenged them to produce their certificates of occupancy and other official documents.
“In that particular land, government had long before now acquired the entire expanse of land in that area. The land is quite massive, and since government has not started development, there was need to de-acquire part of it and give it back to the community, leaving some part to address the needs of the people for overriding public interest.
“After that was done, a number of persons now want to go beyond the de-acquired land and now begin to eat into the one that was not de-acquired. So, when anybody calls the commissioner for lands, just because she is from that community, the person is not being fair.
“Some of them want her to use her influence to just take the land and give back to them. She does not have that power, and I don’t think she would want to abuse her position as a commissioner because she is from Ibusa. The woman has not done anything wrong as commissioner for lands. What she is doing is that she is protecting the decision of government,” Aniagwu said.