By Akanimo Sampson
An alleged 1,901 hectares of land grab by Anambra State Government for an airport project without any compensation to the land owners has sparked a wild cat protest in the Eastern Nigeria state.
Eye-witnesses say bedlam was let loose on Monday when hundreds of women and irate youths of Enuagu, Umuinu and Umuopu kindred of Ifite Umueri, Anambra East Local Government Area, stormed the airport project site, chasing away all the workers.
The protesters are insisting that no work will go on in the site until their grievances were addressed.
Some tore their clothes, and exposed their nudities, as a way of expressing worries over alleged forceful takeover of their ancestral lands spanning 1,901 hectares without any compensation.
The obviously bitter protesters also wielded placards bearing various inscriptions such as: “Enuagu, Umuinu and Umuopu kindred gave 729.606 hectares of land to Anambra government during Chris Ngige era, but Obiano’s government forcefully took additional 1,200 hectares.
“Obiano, go back to the 729.606 hectares of land originally gazette for the airport project,” “We can’t allow this project to go on if government signs no MOU with our community.
“Anambra government has taken over our lands; where do we farm? Are we to become refugees in our own land?”, among other things.
They are accusing Governor Willie Obiano, and some top government functionaries of partitioning their land for personal use and gain.
The women who marched round the proposed airport site, chanting and making unprintable remarks about the governor also made bonfires on the airport road, and vowed to resist any attempt by the government and its agents to deprived their children of their inheritance
Spokesman for the protesters, Uchenna Ndumanya, said his community gave the state government 729.606 hectares of land for the airport project, for which they were compensated; but that the state went ahead to grab additional 1,200 hectares without consent from or compensation for the owners.
“During the Chris Ngige era, our kindred gave 729.606 hectares of land for the airport project, for which we were compensated. But when Obiano came in, the state abandoned the gazette 729.606 hectares. The state forcefully grabbed additional 1,200 hectares, totaling about 1,901 hectares. There was no compensation!
“We wrote to the governor about this, but there was no response. We wrote to the police, DSS; we equally wrote to the Secretary to the State Government, but there was not action. This is why we decided to go this way. We shall continue to occupy this site for the next one month. Without government addressing our concerns, we shall not leave here”, he explained.
Adding, he said, “we are the people of Ifite Umueri. We are the people that donated airport land to the Anambra State Government during the Dr Chris Ngige regime, about 14 years ago.
“When we donated the land we gave them about 729.66 hectares but now they have left that particular place we donated to them and just encroached into our individual land.
“They are now encroaching into about 1901 hectares, about three times of what we gave them. We had our first protest on the matter in 2019. And since then nothing has been done.
“We’ve petitioned to the Commissioner of Police, the Directorate of State Service, nothing has happened. We’ve gone to governor’s office; gone to SSG’s office. Day-by-day ,they are building on the land with impunity; sharing the land amongst themselves. And the particular place we gave them, they left it – nothing has been done there.
”We are here to let the world hear our cry because all our efforts had been scuttled. The governor is from Aguleri, the Commissioner for Works is from Aguleri; the Chief of Staff is from Aguleri, virtually every top government official is from Aguleri.
“When you are explaining those things to them, it looks like speaking to deaf ears because they’re our age long rivals. They want to turn us as refugees in our community; but we can’t be turn to Internally Displaced Persons in our own land because of airport.’’
Ndumanya argued that if government was allowed to have it way on the matter, no fewer than 300 building in the community will be demolished, pointing out, ‘’the airport work is going on but not on the land we originally gave them. They have rather shared the original land we gave them amongst themselves and encroached into our individual land to build the airport.
“The implication is that Aguleri has succeeded in relocating Umueri from our original place. We don’t want the airport again. We can’t be displaced because of the airport. We thought the airport will bring development to our land, we didn’t know they are thinking of another.
‘’We will continue this protest by staying for one month on this road. All these houses, schools will be demolished according to their plans for the airport. The whole of this community will be displaced if we allow this their evil machinations to work. We won’t allow that to be.
Meanwhile, Works Commissioner, Marcel Ihejiofor, is yet to make an official response on the potentially dangerous land crisis. When our local correspondent contacted him on telephone on Monday, he claimed that he was in a meeting and could not speak on the matter.
