Ben Ezechime, Enugu
On May 29, 2023, Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi, will cease to be the Governor of Enugu State popularly called “Coal City” state and by extension, the capital of South-East region of Nigeria.
On that fateful day and from that day he will be wearing the toga of ex-governor, and by implication, all that he did while in office would be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Whether history will remember him for good or bad, only time shall tell.
However, for the people of both Amechi Uwani and Obeagu Communities in Awkunanaw, they are praying to God that the man, whom many saw as a peaceful leader should pack and leave the Lion Building even before the May 29, terminal date.
Though, Ugwuanyi was not the originator of their predicament but his current last minute attempt to forcefully sack them from their ancestral land and home of their forefathers through executive fiat has made the people to evoke the spirit of their ancestors against the governor.
The State Government, through the Enugu Capital Development Authority (ECDA), had recently given a 7-day ultimatum to property owners numbering 68 plots of land at the Centenary City Estate Enugu to vacate their houses/Lands or have them demolished.
According to the residents, the government fraudulently claimed illegal trespassing and non conformity with approved plans among others as the reason for its action.
Following the ultimatum, the aborigines, who claimed that the demolition exercise was targeted at exploiting them and pushing them into extinction, took to protests.
They claimed that the way and manner Ugwuanyi and his agents were going about the whole exercise just weeks to his leaving office was fraudulent and an attempt to reap where they did not sow.
The protesters, alongside their masquerades barricaded the main road to the city, pouring libations and making incantations crying to their forefathers to come and intervene on their behalf.
The youths carried placards some of which read: “Ugwuanyi leave our land for us; Ugwuanyi leave our land alone; This is our ancestral land, we have no other place to go.”
The communities accused the governor of using his agents and surrogates to illegally acquire their land through the back door, and vowed to vehemently resist any attempt to deprive them of their ancestral land.
They vowed to resist any attempt by Ugwuanyi and his cohorts to turn them into destitute in their own home.
The traditional ruler of Obeagu, Awkunanaw community, HRH Mike Nnukwu in a World press Conference in his palace over the the matter, said it was heart breaking and mind-blowing for a few individuals to conceive the idea of grabbing an entire community’s inheritance.
He said: “It breaks my heart to stand here to speak to you over something that our forefathers hoped will bring us shared prosperity but is now the source of shared pain and anguish.
“It really breaks my heart to be speaking to you over what should have been developed into an orchard of prosperity for our people but which has become the albatross of our affliction
“Since 2009, our people have been randomly arrested, imprisoned and even murdered because some persons who had the privilege of leadership decided that it was our ancestral heritage that should become their gold mine.”
Nnukwu informed that the vast expanse of land in question was originally 318 hectares which was proposed for the permanent site of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) in 1983, by the then Anambra State Governor, Sen. Jim Nwobodo.
“However, many years later, after Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani moved the site of the proposed University to his hometown in Agbani, in 2006, some people miraculously expanded the proposed 318 hectares to become 1097 hectares brazenly covering even a portion of my palace – one of our traditional symbols of unity as well as other places of traditional value
“We cried to this Government of His Excellency Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and that Certificate of Occupancy (CoO) was graciously revoked.
“But earlier this year in a stunning consent judgment, we were greeted with another attempt to place a legal seal over the quantum illegality by these land grabbers, even when we applied to join the suit but were not heard.
“If they had stopped there, we would have followed the same processes of court which we have initiated in numerous suits, including our application to join the very suit wherein which the consent judgement was acquired, to protect the legal rights of our people
“We are now being led like hapless bondmen to the slaughter as the series of announcements on print media and on the radio suggest that they have, this time, conscripted the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority to finalise their planned subjugation,” the Igwe lamented.
Nnukwu, however, said he had the confidence of the character of the leadership of the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority.
“I understand that the Chairman is one person who appreciates the position of legal jurisprudence, especially with court orders specifically ordering against any demolitions in our place.
“We have opened communications with them and hope that they will not present themselves as tools to facilitate anarchy in Enugu State.
“I can also confidently note that if there is one legacy assiduously pursued by the administration of Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, it has been one of sustained peace within the state.
“Any suggestion that this administration will support any action that will plunge our community into turmoil and guaranteed anarchy is therefore totally alien.
“It is also near impossible to imagine that the current government would wish to usher in the incoming administration with a parting Trojan horse of crisis.
“It is my prayer that those elected and appointed to serve us, continue to hearken to the voice of reason, so that they do not leave us worse off than they met us,” he said.
The Igwe, as a custodian of moral values advised the Youths to shun acts capable of truncating the peace of the state “while all efforts were being made to put things in proper perspective.”
He said: “I share in your pain but consider it important to stress that you remain peaceful and law-abiding and that as your leaders, we will continue to do our best to ensure that we preserve our heritage until we can hand it over to the next generation as our fathers handed it over to us.”
On his part one of the indigenes of Amechi Uwani, Chief Sunday Nnaji lamented that he and his people had no other place to go if their family land and structures already erected in them was forcefully taken from them.
He said: “There is nothing like Centenary. It is a fraud. It was the Managing Director of Private Estate International West Africa Ltd, Kingsley Ezeh, who later changed to Tenecce that concocted the name Centenary.
“We will die to defend our land. It is our inheritance, we have no where to go.”
However, despite all the brouhaha, the ECTDA still went ahead to mobilise its caterpillar, men and security operatives to the demolition site and the mother of all protests began.
“This forced the authority to abandon the exercise and retreat for remobilisation still with the intent to seeing to the completion of the exercise.
Thereafter, two affected residents’ of the estate and aborigines of Amechi Uwani approached an Enugu Magistrate Court and obtained a court injunction restraining the state government and their agents from carrying out further demotion until the determination of a motion for interlocutory injunction.
“His Lordship, I.M Mamah gave the order while ruling on an ex parte motion brought brought to the court by ACESTA Estates, Chief Henry Okechukwu Agbo And Chief Sunday Nnaji White against Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, Enugu South Local Government, Town Planning Authority, Enugu State Government and the state Ministry Of Lands in suit No. MES/30M/2023.R
“The two residents had approached the court on the grounds that the 7-day notice issued to them by the state government was not in line with the law of recovery.”
Meanwhile, a former chairman of Enugu South Local Government Council and a member of Igwe Obeagu’s cabinet lamented that the whole exercise was not only fraudulent but a deliberate attempt to deny the people their God-given inheritance.
He said that the community was not going to only fight to stop the current imperialist expansion but will ask the courts to explain the legality of an executive governor acquiring their land without either compensation or relocation.
He accused Ugwuanyi’s administration of insincerity in the handling of the issue, adding that under his administration two committee’s were set up to verify the true state of the estate and make recommendations.
According to him, two committee’s at different times concluded and submitted their reports only for the governor to jettison those reports and went to court without the knowledge of the third party (the communities) and in February this year obtained a “consent judgment” with which he’s now using to annex “our land.”
He said that, following the siting of ESUT permanent site at Agbani by former governor, they balkanised the Obeagu community lands and were sharing it among themselves.
He regretted that even until now nobody knows at which period when 318 hectares jumped to 1097 hectares.
“Who did it and under whose administration, we don’t know,” he said.
As the legal battle continues and Ugwuanyi gets set to park his luggage out of the Lion Building, all fingers are crossed. Wlll the ancestors of Obeagu and Amechi Uwani communities prevail or will Ugwuanyi go ahead to subjugate the people. Only time will tell!
