…Appeal to Gov. Ugwuanyi to help retrieve ancestral land
From Chidi Nnadi, Enugu
The people of Nsude Community in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State are not happy any more. Their anger stems from the proposal to develop a layout by the state government through a private developer from the neigbouring Ngwo town.
Nsude people claimed that the Ngwo people were ‘erroneously’ recognised in the proposed project instead of them.
To vent their feelings, their women recently organised a peaceful protest to persuade Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to help them recover their ancestral land ‘wrongly’ given to the Ngwo people.
The traditional ruler of Nsude, Igwe Prof. Ken Onyia, who made the appeal in his palace after the peaceful protest said the land which 9th Mile Bypass passed through belonged to Amozibe and Umuezi villages in Nsude and not Ifueke Ngwo as claimed.
Prof. Onyia noted that though they have boundary with the Ngwo people, the land in contention was surveyed, registered and published in the gazette of the old Anambra State as far back as 1991.
According to him, the two communities, Amozibe and Umuezi, have already produced documents that proved that the land belonged to the Nsude people.
The traditional ruler disclosed that the said portion of land has been shared amongst all male adults in the two villages who are above 18 years as their inheritance, adding that some of them have sold their plots to third parties.
“Our demand is that government should not take our land and give to Ngwo people when we don’t have any dispute with them. The layout has been bulldozed. Our land should be given back to us and the layout restored to its original state,” he said.
He reminded Governor Ugwuanyi that during the flag-off of reconstruction of the 9th Mile Bypass otherwise called the Nsude-Ngwo Bypass, he was the person that presented the welcome address to the governor and his entourage.
“It is not known that a traditional ruler will present a welcome address in a land that does not belong to his community,” he argued.
Prof. Onyia further argued that it was wrong for the government to issue a Certificate of Occupancy to a private company for their land in the name of the Ngwo people.
Igwe Onyia pointed said there was no land dispute between the Nsude and Ngwo people to warrant the acquisition of the land.
“We also note that Nsude Community has never been stingy with donations of land for developmental purposes either to government or private concerns. For example, Nsude Community donated land for the uncompleted International Market, we also donated land for building of a Catholic seminary,” he noted.
Some of the protesting women also corroborated what the traditional ruler said, saying that they had already shared the plots of lands to their children as their inheritance.