By Christiana Ekpa
The Chairman of the Outage Town Union Litigation Committee of Obeagu Awkunanaw local government of Enugu State, Chiene Chiene, has expressed confidence that the the community will get justice in the case of alleged police harassment as well land grabbing in a petition presented to the House of Representatives.
The community had petitioned the parliament over allegations of land grabbing and police harassment which had led to the destruction of property as well as the loss of lives by certain interests.
When the House Committee of Public Petitions entertained the matter, its Chairman, Mike Etaba, struck out the case of land grabbing, saying it was before a court of competent jurisdiction.
He however assured that the issue of intimidation and harassment by the police would be followed up to the letter.
Chiene said, “We presented our petition asking the national assembly to come to our rescue to stop the police intimidation and harassment. That is why we went there so that whether this issue of whether or not our land was legally acquired should be put to rest. They are forceful land grabbers. We are happy with the situation as they are sending their legal consultant to do some underground assessments of the situation. So we believe very strongly that we would get what we are looking for which is justice and peace given the facts before them.”
He said the police not be used to harass them as the matter is in court.
He said there was a siege laid against the community at large as a result of the conspiracies and plans orchestrated principally by the trio of Dr. Festus Uzor, Kingsley Eze and Bar. Gozie Okoye to forcefully take over their land.
The petition presented to the House rear, “We must state that the attempt to forcefully take over and sell off our ancestral land was hatched sometime in 2009 by the ‘three musketeers’ named above. The question is what is their connection in relation to this issue at stake?
“As earlier stated, sometime in 2009, Dr. Festus Uzor was the Commissioner for Lands, Enugu State during the tenure of Bar. Sullivan Chime, Bar Gozie Okoye was the Branch Manager of Diamond Bank, Enugu while Kingsley Eze of Private Estates Int’l West Africa, (PEIWA) who was hardly known then, apparently dangled this heinous project or what we could regard as ‘operation take over Obeagu land’ to the other two who gladly saw the potentials of the ‘deal’ and keyed into it.
“Thus, Dr. Festus Uzor used his office as the Commissioner for Lands, and did sign the letter of offer to PEIWA, then Barr Gozie Okoye used his office to secure a Two-Billion-naira loan facility secured with our land, and thereafter hell was let loose, and our community became a battle ground for every land grabber to unleash their selfish pangs against us. It is needless to say that since this conspiracy was hatched and purportedly executed, we as a community have known no peace; as we have been continually victimized, dehumanized, degraded, incarcerated and made to suffer helplessly.”
