Some members of the Enugwu Agidi community in Anambra State’s Njikoka Local Government Area are at odds with their monarch, Igwe Izuchukwu Onyeocha, over the title and control of some pieces of land in the community.
The outraged community members, led by Mr Victor Mgbajiaka, the group’s President-General, accused the king of masterminding several attacks carried out by suspected land grabbers.
Mgbajiaka told media at a press conference in Awka on Friday that 12 people had been injured and two women had been raped by thugs hired by the accused land grabbers.
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He stated that land grabbers had forcibly grabbed over 1,000 pieces of community land and ruined several farmlands.
Mgbajiaka said, “We are calling on Governor Chukwuma Soludo to save us from the activities of these land grabbers who have taken over about 1,000 plots of the community land by force and destroying farm land and crops of our people.
“They are parading thugs who have been attacking our people and as of now about 12 persons have been injured and we learnt that two women were raped by those thugs.”
“I went to my farm one day and realized that all my crops had been destroyed,” Madam Evelyn Okeke-Nta, 65, said. “When I confronted the thugs who arrived with a bulldozer, they attacked me and warned me that if I disturbed their clearance of the area, the bulldozer would run me down.”
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When approached, Igwe Onyeocha quickly refuted all charges against him, claiming that he had no involvement in any land grabbing actions as claimed by the community’s disgruntled members.
He went on to say that the parcels of land he obtained were legally purchased by him, with relevant documentation to back them up, and he challenged the disgruntled members to produce evidence that he forcefully took over their land.
He said, “Those people are just being jealous and envious and it’s a mere conspiracy by the group to malign me. It is because I refused to give them money that they turned round to accuse me of land grabbing when they know that there is nothing like communal land.
“One of them came to me after I had bought a land from his family and asked that I pay him if I must take possession of the land. I promised to give him money but when the money wasn’t forthcoming he went about accusing me of land grabbing.
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“The man that claimed to be the president general of the town who is also among them is only impersonating, because his three months tenure as an interim PG has passed and he is still parading himself as the PG.”
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