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From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
Residents of Owo, hometown of Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, yesterday staged a peaceful protest over what they described as a fresh military invasion and destruction of property by soldiers allegedly attempting to take over their ancestral lands.
Carrying placards that read “Owo land is not barracks,” “Remove soldiers, restore peace,” “President Tinubu save us,” and “Say no to military land grabbing,” the protesters — many of them women and elderly villagers — accused the Army of defying a valid court injunction restraining it from entering their land. They called on President Ahmed Tinubu to intervene urgently.
Speaking to journalists, counsel to the Owo community, Igwenagu Ngene, recalled that the crisis dates back to November 2015 when soldiers first appeared in the area and marked several buildings with inscriptions such as “Remove: Army land, keep off.”
He said the Army simultaneously mounted billboards and beacons across the community, claiming the entire land belonged to them.
“We wrote immediately in November 2015 to the GOC of the 82 Division requesting that the soldiers be withdrawn. When nothing happened, we wrote to the Enugu State Government and the House of Assembly,” Ngene said.
He said the people saw the invasion as “a case of annihilation, land grab, and an invasion of a whole community that is unknown to law and unheard of. Except in a case of military conquest, where after conquering you annex a place, but this is not the case here,” he added.
According to him, although the Ministry of Lands later invited both the Army and the community for a meeting, the Army “declined to make any comment” and insisted that the land belonged to them.
Ngene said the community then petitioned the National Assembly, which conducted a fact-finding mission and public hearings. “In the end, the Army was asked to stay away because they could not provide any document to back their land claim.”
He noted that after staying off for some years, soldiers resurfaced in April 2025, prompting the community to obtain a restraining order in suit number 375/2025 from Justice C. O. Ajah of the Enugu State High Court.
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At his palace, the traditional ruler of Owo, Igwe Godwin Okeke Arum, fought back tears as he condemned the situation.
“It is disheartening that a whole community will be asked to quit to nowhere for no reason other than the fact that some people are wielding guns and jackboots bought with taxpayers’ money.”
He recalled that “sometime in 2015, a team of the Nigerian Army came to the community and started mounting billboards around the entire community, asking us to quit, that this is Army land.”
“The Army has even threatened to take over my palace, locations of our community shrines, and the ancestral home of the governor, who is father of the state. Can you imagine that?” he added.
Igwe Arum further alleged that soldiers have been “molesting my subjects, demolishing ongoing projects, and chasing investors away.”
President-General of the community, Chief John Ogbu, also appealed for urgent intervention.
“This is a direct plea to President Bola Tinubu as the father of the nation to come to our aid. He should halt this attempt to snatch our lands at gunpoint,” he said.
“As I speak, our people can no longer go to their farms freely for fear of heavily armed soldiers that have taken over the entire community. Investors who are coming into Owo are being turned back by military fiat. This is a democracy, not military rule. The Army is not above the courts or laws of Enugu State and Nigeria.”
When contacted, the Acting Deputy Director of Army Public Relations, 82 Division, Olabisi Ayeni, said he would investigate the matter and requested evidence of any alleged rough handling by soldiers.
