The Onuogba Nike Community in Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State has dismissed land grabbing allegations against former Minister of Power, Prof Barth Nnaji.
They stated this at a press conference in Enugu today, Tuesday, September 17, saying that the people of Ezza Nkomoro who are laying claim to the land are mere settlers in Onuogba Nike and as such do not have the right to claim any land in the community.
This is as Nnaji’s legal representative, Benjamin Nwobodo presented documents showing that his client had legally acquired the said land from the family of the late Titus Alinta who had bought the land from the Onuogba people.
Spokesman of Onuogba Nike Community and the immediate past President General of the community, Chief Uboshi Emmanuel, asserted that the Ezza Nkomoro people are settlers who had migrated from Ezza in the present Ebonyi State.
According to him, the parcel of land they are claiming was never part of the land which was rented to them several years ago when they migrated to the community.
“The error I want to correct is to emphasise that Bart Nnaji is not a land grabber. He bought his land legitimately. Our tenant is from Ezza Nkomoro in Ezzagu. They came to our place to dwell for a reason. Our people gave them a portion of land to live in.
“But they later started claiming that the entire Onuogba belongs to them. The land sold to Alinta is not the same place given to them. They are claiming that they will take over our entire land.
“The same people who gave them the land went to court in 1974 and got a favourable judgment in 2004. They went to the Court of Appeal and lost. Then they went to the Supreme Court. Even when they consulted their people in 2015, they were asked to remain within the portion they were given and abide by the tenancy agreement but they refused.
“They are the land grabbers. Anywhere they are, they would like to take their land. All we are asking is that they should remain within the area where we have them.
While presenting legal documents proving the acquisition of the land, Nwobodo stated that the Ezza Nkomoro community were never owners of the land as indicated by documents presented by the people of Onuogba Nike.
He said: “As soon as the property was transferred to Prof Nnaji, he went in to exercise ownership of the land. These people now brought an application for stay of execution. That was when we came in to represent him. Though he was not a party to the suit.
“It was the original owners of the land (the sons of Alinta) that transferred the property to him. When the court saw that there was no merit in the application, the court dismissed it.
“What the Nkomoro people now did was to begin to sell the property to strangers. Not that they were building their own houses. That is a very clear act of unlawfulness. So, Prof said enough is enough, you must get out of my land.
“It is not fair when you know that this land does not belong to you, you begin to contest it. Why must you begin to sell when you know that judgment has been entered against you? The houses that were demolished did not belong to the Ezza Nkomoro people. They belonged to the strangers that the Nkoromo people sold land to.”
On his part, the Vice Chairman, Caretaker Committee of Nkomoro Onuogba Nike Development Union, Agbom Nweke said it is true that they migrated to Onuogba in 1956 from Ezza when they were brought in to help the community contain invaders.
He acknowledged that the portion of land sold to Alinta was not part of the land which they were given to settle on by the community but that he encroached on their own part of the land in the process of surveying the property.
