Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Residents of Akwu-Ukwa, Okpanam, in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State thought the last Sallah holiday of Monday, November 12, 2019 was another day for relaxation. They were wrong. They never enjoyed it.
In fact, it turned to be the busiest of days for them as a result of alleged invasion of the community by youths who unleashed bulldozers to pull down buildings and fences of developed and developing properties.
They watched helplessly as the bulldozers reduced some properties to rumbles allegedly with the protection of armed security operatives. Then, the affected landlords began running from pillar to post to salvage the situation.
It was an inter-communal clash that was averted because the people of Akwu-Ukwa did not raise a finger to resist what they described as oppression and intimidation ostensibly for the presence of the security operatives.
The bone of contention, Daily Sun later gathered, was a disagreement between Akwu-Akwa in Okpanam and Umuodafe community in neighbouring Ibusa town over the true owners of the about 900 hectares of land in the emerging community.
The disagreement had lasted decades, and had gone through series of litigations from the High Court to the Supreme Court with the apex court said to have delivered its judgment on the matter in 2006 in favour of Umuodafe. The people of Umuodafe, in attempt to execute the 2006 judgment, engaged the services of a consultant, who promised to recover the disputed land for them.
Armed with the judgment and security operatives, the consultant allegedly unleashed the bulldozers to bring down buildings.
But residents of the area described the action as an intimidation and impunity of the highest order, and appealed to the state government to intervene in order to avoid bloodshed and sustain the prevailing peace in the state.
In a recent protest against the alleged demolition, the residents armed with placards of various inscriptions, insisted that their properties had certificates of occupancy and approved survey plans by the state government, noting that the lands were legitimately acquired.
Fabian Chukwuma Okia, a member of the Board of Trustees of Asaba Airport View Estate, one of the estates in the area, said they were not aware of any court judgment conceding the area to Umuodafe community of Ibusa:
“As much as we know, land dispute is not a new thing in Nigeria. We are not aware that there is a judgment to this effect conceding this place to Ibusa community. In as much as we are not joining issues with Okpanam or taking side with them that they own this place 100 percent, we want the right thing to be done.
“We expect that due process should be followed. Destroying people’s properties is not the solution neither will it return what has been destroyed. For example, these fences and building destroyed cannot be restored even when there is settlement.
“What we have seen here is impunity, people took laws into their hands and came here to destroy our properties. But as law abiding citizens, we are open for negotiations we want the judgment of the Supreme Court we want the litigation of the survey plan of which they got their verdict.
“We are also aware of so many documents flying around, some in favour some against. We know that between two persons struggling for a particular thing, one must be right and one must be wrong. We are appealing to the police to be neutral and let the documents speak.
“We know that some people would want to benefit from situations like this, yes fraudsters exist, land grabbers also exist. We cannot just come here to acquire land if we knew that there was dispute. Please tell government to do the right thing.
“Delta State Government should call Umuodafe to order and Okpanam people should come up with what they have. We can sit down at a round table to discuss the way forward. We are open to negotiations in as much as it is done with the basic truth.
“We don’t want to lose our properties, we don’t want to lose our lives because most people could have died if they had taken the laws into their hand that day. We don’t want blood shed, we don’t want anarchy we want peace in this community.”
Dada Okolie who claimed to have sold a vast portion of the land to majority of the present occupants, maintained that the property belonged to his father, a native of Okpanam, insisting that he cannot stand and watch Ibusa people take away his inheritance:
“This land belongs to Okpanam, that is Okolie family of Okpanam. What Ibusa people are doing is that they are trying to cause crisis that will claim lives because I cannot stand and allow this land to go, so they want people to die.”
Chairman of the concerned residents of Akwu-Ukwu land, Joseph Obi, appealed to the state government to come their rescue, saying that they have been living in the area for over 15 years without crisis:
“We bought the land legitimately, and we have C of Os, our properties are surveyed and lodged. We have approved plans which government has taken revenue on.
“If the land belongs to Ibusa, government would not have be taken money for C of Os and building plans, if they take that it means that they have also defrauded the community.
“We are angry, we are weeping, we are not happy with this type of leadership around here. We are frustrated, our lives are being threatened. The police authority even beat up our people unlawful and destroyed our properties even when we demanded to see the litigation survey plan.
“A case that started in 1979 should have a litigation survey plan. Upon which premises did the Supreme Court base its judgment if there was no litigation survey plan? A litigation plan that demarcates Ibusa and Okapnam land should be the premises where they would now say this is where Okpanam belongs to, this is where Ibusa belongs to.
“They don’t have any litigation plan on site, they don’t have any judgement on site, they started parading 2006 judgment to destroy our property.”
The consultant’s lawyer told Daily Sun: “The lower court gave judgment in respect of that matter in the early 1990s. Then Okpanam people went to the Court of Appeal where their appeal was dismissed. They further appealed to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court on May 26, 2006 dismissed their appeal.
“Soon after the judgment of the Supreme Court, Okpanam people even paid the cost awarded against them by the both the High Court, the Court Appeal and the Supreme Court.”
On why it took so long to execute the judgment: “It did not take so long. Execution commenced in 2006 but was disrupted as a result of internal crisis within the Umuodafe community, which led to burning of houses and deaths of some individuals. This year, having organised themselves, they decided to take steps to recover the land and complete the execution.
“Do you continue to fight when the Supreme Court, the court of finality has given judgment? More so, to put what we are doing into proper perspective, what we did was to take the litigation survey plan, which the Supreme Court had served as the boundary between the two communities to the Ministry of Lands.
“The Surveyor General of Delta State interpreted it, and signed the interpreted copy, which I have in my office. I don’t know why somebody is saying it is Okpanam. They should do the needful and meet Ibusa people to change their title. The land belongs to Ibusa and Ibusa people did not sell land to them.
“If they are open to negotiation, they should know what to do. We have informed, the last time we went there, we told them to come, I left my forwarding address and telephone numbers with them for them to come, then we will discuss with Unuodafe community and regularise their title.”
As at the time of filing this report, the state government was said to have taken steps to stop further demolition on the ground that those who are aggrieved should approach government to resolve any disagreement rather than resorting to the destruction of property.