...Says ancestral homes, worship places, others affected
The people of Ochima Community, in Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area of Enugu State, Monday, embarked on a peaceful protest over an alleged plan to take over their ancestral land by the Nigerian army.
The protesters comprising youths, elderly men and women, who marched in their hundreds from the community square to the palace of their traditional ruler, carried placards with different inscriptions such as;
“Nigerian government should come to our rescue," "Nigerian army should leave Ochima land," "We say no to Nigeria army taking our land," Nigeria army should stop spraying bullets in our land," "Nigerian army, leave our ancestral land for us," among others.
Speaking, HRH Igwe Hyacinth Ugwu-Ogbuke, the traditional ruler of the community (Ochima) said that it is an aberration that the Nigeria army would enter the community and start surveying and planting beacons on their ancestral land without informing or consulting the community leaders.
"What the military is planning to do in our community is provoking and must be condemned by every well-meaning Nigerian.
"We have a pending case against them in the court regarding their plan to convert part of our ancestral lands as their training ground.
"We have never had any agreement with the Nigerian army that would warrant them to encroach or take any part of our land for any reason.
"We are calling on the state and Federal Government to call them to order and stop them from encroaching on our land.
"The land in question contains half of the community's ancestral homes, community borehole, Church, village square, deities, farmland, streams, economics trees, and many others," he said.
The traditional ruler, however, appealed to the protesting community members to remain calm assuring that the court would do Justice to the matter.
He noted further that "Ochima is the eldest community in the Nsukka cultural zone, hence the need to preserve its ancestral heritage."
Also speaking, Mr. Gerald Okwesili, the President General, Ochima General Assembly, said that members of the community decided to come together to protest the moves by the army to take over their land and ancestral homes without consulting the community leaders.
He said that military personnel from 82 Division in Enugu came to their community on the 13th and 14th of July 2024, heavily armed, and started planting beacons on their land, as well as telling residents that the land belongs to the Nigerian army.
"We are calling on the government at all levels to please come to our rescue, the Nigerian army is planning to take over our land and other ancestral inheritances away from us.
"Last Saturday, they came to our community and started mounting beacons along our land, and they continued on Sunday.
"The situation has triggered fear and apprehension among our people, who are now afraid of losing the ancestral home, worship places, and other sacred and ancestral inheritance to the military.
"The most painful part whole thing is that the land they are marking contains ancestral homes/houses of over half of the community population, farmlands, streams, church, boreholes, village squares, deities, economic trees, etc," he said.
Speaking further, the PG said that the army had a shooting range close to the community, adding that their activities in the area posed a serious threat to the dwellers.
"The activities of the army in and around our community are already giving us a sleepless night, just last year a lady was hit by a stray bullet suspected to have emanated from the army's shooting range.
"We have written to the local government to inform them about the army encroachment on our land but nothing was done, the community dragged them to court and the matter is still pending at the court only for them to start laying claim to our communal land," he said.
Elder Madubuattah Nwokwesili, the eldest man in the community said that there was never a time the community had any land transaction or reached any agreement with the Nigerian military, and wondered why they were laying claim to the land.
However, when contacted, the spokesperson of the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Jonah Unuakhalu, said that he would make inquiries on the claim of the Ochima community.
"I am not aware of what the Ochima community is protesting for, I know we have a military shooting range somewhere in Udi LGA, but I will make inquiries," he said.
This is too disheartening.why should land owners be ripped off their acestoral inheritance by the Nigeria army.
ReplyDeleteThe worst of it is that their spoke men aren't aware of the action towards the claiming the the poor village land