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From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
•The protesters from Umuenu Umuawuly community
Some indigenes of Umuenu Umuawulu community in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State recently embarked on a peaceful protest over alleged encroachment on their ancestral land, called Agu Udo/Agu Ofu land, by a neighbouring community, Abo Ani Awgbu, in Orumba North Local Government Area of the state.
Awgbu is the home of Ernest Ezeajughi, the Chief of Staff to Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo and the people of Umuenu Umuawulu community are alleging that he is using his office to influence the state’s Depuuty Governor, Ifeanyichukwu Ibezim, who is the chairman of the state’s boundary committee, to suppress them.
•Dr. Ibezim
However, Ezeajughi, in reaction, debunked the allegation, describing it as spurious.
Some of the protesters, including octogenarians and nonagenarians, carried placards with various inscriptions: “Governor Soludo come to our rescue”, “Abo Ani encroached on our land, we have Supreme Court judgment in our favor on the land”, and “Soludo intervene before they take over our land,” among others.
The spokesperson for the protesters, former chairman of Umuenu Umuawulu community, Chief Humphrey Obi, recalled how the land dispute started and how Umuenu won all the three court cases that included the Supreme Court judgment against Abo Ani Awgbu community.
He said that not being satisfied with the three court judgments, the Abo Ani people proceeded to Anambra State Boundary Commission, headed by the Deputy Governor, Onyekachukwu Ibezim, where they demanded for the demarcation of the disputed land.
He said: “At the commission, we insisted that we were the owners of the land and also believe that the judgment of the Supreme Court must be adhered to since it is still an extant law.
“Funny enough, our brother Enugwu community, Umuawulu, supported Abo Ani and bore witness against us that Abo Ani owned the land in the court but now they have made a U-turn and are claiming that the land belongs to them, a claim which showed that they are being backed by some powerful forces from the state government.
“The deputy governor, while we were interfacing with Abo Ani at the meeting he presided over, told us that he has no business with the Supreme Court judgment and others and that he has not even gone through the documents we submitted that he only wants the demarcation of the land in dispute.
“It is clear from the utterances of the deputy governor that he is biased and influenced by the chief of staff, who hails from Awgbu, and Nkala, who is former director of the boundary commission. That is why we call on Soludo to come to our rescue.
“It is the sacred duty of Anambra State boundary committee to follow and apply the said demarcation as judiciously fixed.”
In a petition by the president and secretary of Umuenu Umuawulu, Nze Okoye Godwin and Mr. Nwafor Tochukwu, respectively, to Soludo, they reminded him of his belief in the supremacy of law, stating that he should not allow any influence from any quarters to cede the land or part of it to Abo Ani Awgbu and Enugwu Umuawulu as they were trespassers stopped by the courts of the land.
Reiterating the danger inherent in ceding the land to the unauthorized communities, the duo urged Soludo to invite the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice to interpret to them the implication of disobeying court order.
Pa Tochukwu Okoye, 94, who also spoke during the protest, said: “I am surprised that someone that signed witness for another now claims to be the owner of the land, let’s just think twice. I am calling on Soludo, as a peaceful man, to intervene in this situation.”
Chief Johnson Anazonwu Nwafor, 88, said: “I was cultivating with my father on that land when I was a child; I know everywhere there. We have no case with Enugwu in that land only Awgbu people. Our village is a peaceful village, if not blood would have been shed on that land due to what they are doing to us.”
Mrs. Roseline Adobe, a widow, added: “I cultivated yam and cassava, among others, but they destroyed all my crops, seized my hoe and knife. That is the only place I feed my children from.”
According to Mrs. Susan Nwaeke Ogbunike, “they stormed the farm where we were cultivating, chased us away, levelled all my farm, destroyed all my crops and as the result of that my blood pressure became high and I’m suffering it till today. We are calling Soludo to come and help us.”
Mrs. Chinwendu Nwanaka, while narrating her experience, said: “I was on my way to get something in my farm and someone told me that all the yam, cassava and cocoyam we cultivated were destroyed. When I got there, I couldn’t get anything, I started shedding tears because no one could help.”
When the reporter contacted Ezeajughi, he said he never influenced anybody to take a decision on the land matter.
He said: “The deputy governor is the chairman of the boundary committee whose duty it is to look into boundary disputes in the state and resolve them amicably. I am not even aware of any meeting holding nor was I part of the team that went for land inspection or demarcation at the disputed land between villages in Umuawulu and another village in Awgbu community.
“Only the deputy governor has the authority to preside over decisions on land matters brought before the Anambra State Boundary Dispute Commission.”
In his reaction, the deputy governor, said: “I brought in a change in our boundary committee. I took my time to go to these disputed areas physically and verified all sorts of claims. At least, we would be able to see every sign of demarcation like trees, rivers and landmarks that keep communities together.
“In the case in question, I went there and walked kilometres inside the bush and stood there. The two villages and a community, because it is between Enugwu village in Umuawulu, Umuenu village in Umuawulu and Abo Ani in Awgbu, all of them came for the case in my office and we fixed a date to go there. Shockingly, Umuenu people failed to show up on the appointed date.
“There, we didn’t also want to take our own decision, so I called the leader of Umuawulu and the lawyer representing them, only to find out that after all of us agreed to meet there, he went back because he was part of the decision that we will go physically there, he told me that he decided later to go to court again.
“I made no statement there. All I told the people present was that we have seen things and that we will go back and take our decision, and that was all. I left. Whatever they are saying is just a matter of them not wanting to let peace reign. We have not released any official statement or taken a decision on the matter. They should wait for my decision first.”
Asked if the Supreme Court judgment the people of Umuenu referred to was in favour of the village, the deputy governor said: “People lay claims to all sorts of things. Let them bring the Supreme Court judgment. You have this judgment and that judgment, we have lawyers.
“We, as the executive arm of the government, our statutory responsibility is also to protect the judgments of the judiciary. To even protect the laws put in place by the legislature because we control the forces to do that.
“I don’t have any piece of land there. I don’t want to have one and I am not from Umuawulu or Awgbu. So, when somebody is calling the Chief of Staff or anybody, the Chief of Staff did not go with us nor was he even aware that we were going there.
“There is what we call monumentation. Ask them if we have done monumentation, which is when we physically go and use beacons and fix and establish boundaries. Let them say whether we have done that. Let them say whether I have pointed at any point as the boundaries.”
