97-year-old man leads protest over land in Awka

A 97-year-old man, Chief Nwabude Nwachukwu, of Ezioaka community, on Friday, led a protest over a disputed land in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

The nonagenarian, who said the state government had paid due compensation to the owners of the land, asked the youths of the community and others to stop making themselves ready tools for violence and destabilisation.

The Awka youths and some other persons in the area had recently taken to the streets, protesting what they called land grabbing by the state government.

They had alleged that the state government under Governor Willie Obiano had reassigned a parcel of land meant for a golf course in the area to an erstwhile senator in the state.

But during the Friday protest, Nwachukwu and his group said government legally entered into the land and had paid them compensation according to extant laws of Anambra State.

They said, “We’re aborigines of the town; nobody can claim the ownership of the land more than us.

“We want to state clearly that the state government reacquired the land after the golf course project failed and paid us our compensation through our attorney.”

Their communiqué read, “The truth is that government has acquired the land and paid compensation on crops and economic trees after due verification of the ownership to which Ezioka participated and were paid without any objection by the two quarters (Agulu and Amikwo).”

The group’s communiqué was signed by Chief Nwabude Nwachukwu (Chairman, Ezioka), Mr. Ejike Onuorah (Secretary, Ezioka land committee).

Others, who signed the document were, Mr Kelue Molokwu (Legal Adviser) and Sir Nweze Anene (Chairman, Ezioka Land Committee).

The group maintained that the state government should not be deceived to think or do otherwise by anybody, no matter how highly placed.

It said “The people of Ezioka community are watching with curious calmness as nobody has a monopoly of restiveness.

“We shall invoke all legal means to protest the rights of the Ezioka land owners within the golf course/Agwu Imo and Uvunu axis,” the group maintained.