The people of Mbanano, Enugwu-Agidi, have urged Anambra State Government to stop one Jeff Nweke of Ezinano, Awka from taking procession of their lands at Trans-obibia, Obioma layouts and adjoining lands.
They made the appeal during their meeting held at the palace of the late traditional ruler of Enugwu-Agidi, Igwe Davidson Ikeanyi.
The meeting and reports that while addressing journalists after the meeting, the Chairman of Mbanano Land Committee, Chief Fred Onubuogu said Mr Nweke sued them to West African Court of Appeal now known as Supreme Court in 1938 on the grounds that the lands belong to them but lost the case.
He said that since then, they have been making use of the areas as gazetted for Enugwu-Agidi by Anambra State Government.
He continued that the man and his group in 2013 sued them again to Nnewi High Court and still lost the case.
According to him, Mr Nweke who was dissatisfied with the judgement took them to an Appeal Court in Awka in 2020 which delivered judgement in favour of Mbanano and restrained him and his cohorts from trespassing into the lands.
He disclosed that when they discovered that the same man has gone back to the lands with armed men vandalizing peoples’ property there and stopped them from farming on the lands, they reported him to the law enforcement agencies who arrested him and arraigned him before a Federal High Court that restrained him from trespassing into the areas.
He regretted that despite all these court rulings, the man is still taking possession of the areas with armed men and urged the state government to come to their aid as they can no longer access those areas.
On his part, the Vice Chairman of Mbanano community, Mr. Peter Onuegbusi revealed that they have disassociated themselves from a peace meeting engaged by Mr Nweke and their indigenes who had been ostracized from the community for indulging in land grabbing and other criminal activities and urged the state government to recover the lands for them by stopping him from unlawful possession of those areas in line with court order
He lamented that the handiwork of the land grabber has caused hunger in the villages that make up Mbanano as they can no longer farm on their lands to feed themselves. UP SOT
As at the time of this report, all efforts to get across to the other party proved abortive.
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