Ex-lawmaker that represented Owerri North LGA in the Imo State House of Assembly and two time Special Adviser to Governor Hope Uzodinma, Hon Dan Ikpeazu has restated his call for Mr Paschal Nwakamma, the SA on Land Recovery to cease his attempt to appropriate the vast area of land belonging to his Emeke Agbala village at the behest of a third party Developer.
He declared that he has no personal interest concerning the contentious land grabbing issue as alleged by Mr Nwakamma in his recent publications, stating that as a community leader the information available to him is that Imo State government did not acquire the OTULAOGWUGWU land in question, but rather, late in 2018, an unscrupulous Estate Developer tried unsuccessfully to use the Housing Ministry to acquire the land. Against this background, he said he was duty bound to be available to protect his people from the wolves who want to devour them.
Going back in history, Ikpeazu stated that Imo State government under Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha’s administration repudiated the inchoate attempt to acquire the land on behalf of a third party masquerading as a property Developer with a fake address at Okigwe Road Owerri.
He said further, The Ministry of Housing has no legitimate capacity to acquire native land on behalf of a third party Developer.
The land owners of Emeke Agbala saw through the illegal scheme and repudiated totally this attempt to hoodwink them into surrendering their inheritance using corrupt government officials.
Senator Hope Uzodimma, since 2020 through both the ministry of Housing which has had two Commissioners, two General Managers Imo Housing Corporation and three Commissioners Ministry of lands, Survey and Physical Planning, maintained the Status quo of the land being in peaceable possession of the native owners.
He noted that it is not surprising that an operative/official of the vilified Okorocha’s administration- Mr Paschal Nwakamma, self styled SA on Land Recovery, having found his way into the present administration is attempting to resurrect the said illegal land grabbing scheme on behalf of self and the same property Developer of Okorocha’s administration.
Hear him, This is without prejudice to the government White paper on land matters that restored such lands to their original owners due to the purported illegal acquisition. It is against this backdrop that neither the purported third party property Developer nor the Imo State government through its relevant agencies perfected this illegal scheme of land grabbing till date. We therefore wonder which authority Paschal Nwakamma is operating, except to perfect his loyalty to his benevolent masters of Okorocha’s administration and their fronts falsely called property developers.
On the position of members of his Emeke Agbala community and the land owners, Ikpeazu stated that the native land owners have resolved to resist this selfish scheme of Nwakamma and his cohorts, not minding that the Hon Commissioner of Housing, Hon Bede Eke may have ignorantly fallen victim to the land grabbing scheme of Paschal Nwakamma and his godfathers.
Our investigation revealed that land ownership in the affected land is through family inheritance and not owned communally as to suggest that an individual can act in representative capacity to donate land he does not own to an external agency or government. Ikpeazu was emphatic that those who purportedly signed MoU have pleaded fraud in obtaining their consent as they have since after then gone ahead to sell their lands. Of significance also, according to Ikpeazu is the fact that some of the persons that signed the MoU have no land in the affected area. Some of them include Chima Ibecheole, (Umuofoihedi kindred), Nathaniel Maduagwu (Umuetomoham kindred), Nze Lambert Uka (Umuodunwanyi kindred), Justin Emeagha ( Umuetomoham kindred), and Kelechi Chima who had disposed of his land earlier before the purported MoU. Under such deficit in legal capacity, Ikpeazu thus queried the authority non owners of land have to give title of such land to a third party. Ikpeazu condemned the cruel manner Mr Paschal Nwakamma deployed to demolish properties of young people like him who suffered for years to realise the money that was invested in the projects without any form of notice. He wept that his people who cultivated food crops in the land and who were not given any chance to harvest them have been rendered desolute and poorer for many years to come. He insisted that a person of Nwakamma’s character does not fit into the administration of Governor Hope Uzodinma who is on a mission of rebuilding imo, and therefore called on the Governor to investigate his activities and those behind this act of sabotage to his administration with the view of placing them where they ought to be.