By Tony Adibe
There seems to be no end to the challenge of land-grabbing in Enugu State as some angry indigenes of Umuatugbuoma Akegbe Ugwu Autonomous community comprising Umuegboaro, Umuewoachime, Umugwuaro, Umude and Umuejimugwu in the State staged a peaceful demonstration against the alleged plot to take over their ancestral land.
Akegbe-Ugwu is in the Enugu South Local Government Area of the state, NewsBits learnt. The people of the community have, therefore, made a passionate appeal to the State Governor, Dr Peter Mbah to protect them from the hands of the ‘greedy and overzealous land grabbers’ whom they claimed came from Awkunanaw.
NewsBits recalls that Governor Mbah, recently signed four bills into law, saying they were part of his administration’s effort to make the state the number one in Ease of Doing Business and preferred destination for investment, business, tourism, and living. One of the bills he signed into law was the anti-land-grabbing law – specifically called the Enugu State Properties Protection Law, to checkmate the activities of land grabbers.
“The Enugu State Properties Protection Law is in line with our promise to enhance the ease of doing business in Enugu State. People, who come to Enugu State to invest in property, must do so in sure knowledge that the title document that is issued to them is worth much more than the paper that it is written on.
“That is why we frown at land grabbers, people who go out there to grab land even when they do not have any title to that land. Essentially, this law is designed to penalyse such acts. This is a big warning to those people who engage in going to empty plots of land to grab them. Under the new law, there are severe and strict punishments that await people who get themselves involved in such acts”, Governor Mbah said while signing the bill into law.
But in spite of the new law, the protesters alleged that there were “attempts by dubious people hiding under the name of Enugu State Government to take their ancestral land at Akpasha in Akegbe Ugwu Awkunanaw.”
The protesters carried various placards with inscriptions such as, “OUR LAND IS NOT FOR GRABBERS”, “GOV MBA IS A FRIEND OF UMUATUGBUOMA”, “POLITICAL TRICK-STARS USE ENUGU GOVT’S NAME TO CORNER PEOPLE’S LANDS”, “WE VOTED FOR OUR MAN BARR MBA”.
The Spokesman of the group, Chief Ezekiel Ogbodo bemoaned “a situation where a handful of individuals are using names of people in Government to threaten their existence since the taking of the said lands through their ploy will make their children homeless.” Ogbodo said: “The land grabbers use His Excellency, Barr Peter Mba’s name to intimidate and take people’ lands.”
According to him, “they firstly, demanded an access road into Chiukwu area of Amechi-Uno which has had an access road since the 60s which has served and still serving the Chiukwu Secondary School, the Federal School of Statistics and the people of Amechi -Uno where His Excellency, Senator Jim Nwobodo hails from.”
He further recounted , “the demand for another access road that will cut through the homes of and land of the five villages of Umuatugbuoma is a ploy by overzealous political actors to humiliate my people of Umuatugbuoma from where our forefathers of His Excellency Barr Mba moved to Owo (same time when people of Amechi Idodo left Amechi Awkunanaw for Idodo) and that their blood brother could not have made up a plan to create homelessness for them after blessing and voting for him.”
Ogbodo bemoaned the fact that his people have no other place to live or build new homes since Enugu Mechanic Village, Rangers Estate Phase 1 and Phase 2 are all on Umuatugbuoma lands. He recalled that during the March 2023 governorship election, their place, Akegbe Ward 2, gave the highest number of votes to Governor Mba in the zone and promised to always support their son.
The protesters claimed that the land grabbing going on around their place have been the handiworks of some Awkunanaw people who are hiding but dropping the name of the governor. They insisted on taking the case to Ani Awkunanaw, Ani Akegbe and Ugwunchi Umuatugbuoma (deities) since those who unjustifiably sell lands are sold by the land (deities).
