Enugu monarch, community bicker over “ancestral land”

The Traditional Ruler of Ibagwa Nike autonomous Community in Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, Igwe Emmanuel Ugwu has said that the youths who protested the alleged ancestral land grabbing are mere mischief makers who were bent on misinforming and misleading the public about him.

SouthEast Trust recalls that youths from the Anekeode and Obangene families of Ibagwa Nike had sent a Save Our Soul message to the state governor, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi , accusing their ruler of conniving with a commissioner in the state to expropriate their ancestral lands.

Their message was sent when they made a peaceful protest on the controversial land, during which they appealed to the governor to rescue them from their Igwe.

But Igwe Ugwu told our correspondent in an interview that the land in question belongs to the state government and was not under his custody or supervision, in spite of his being the traditional ruler.

“The land they are talking about doesn’t belong to the community; it belongs to the state government. I have no control over the land. So, I cannot be selling government land as the protesters alleged,” the traditional ruler said.

He said if the protesters were not mischief makers who were out to “dent my image and cover their ugly tracks, how come they were not courageous enough to tell the truth about the land they are referring to as their own?”

He said that the land was taken by the old Anambra State Government since 1990, but when he became the traditional ruler of the community, he appealed to the former governor, Sullivan Chime, who released some of the land as compensation to the community.

He said individuals who would go there to develop their land may have problems with some youths who are attacking developers there.

Ugwu said: “It’s not true that I’m conniving with government to collect or sell their land. They are only dropping my name in order to give undue credibility to their complaints or socalled claims.

“The same people want me to back them but I told them I can’t support them in a government land because the government has given our people compensation. So, the land belongs to the government, not our community.

“When government took it in 1990, why was it not seen as a personal or family land? The protesters and their sponsors are just doing this to misinform the public about me. I am the traditional ruler, if there is any issue in the community, they should approach me first before going to the press to smear my image and assassinate my character.”

But leaders from the two families , Kelvin Okwor and Ngwu Ikenna, would have none of the Igwe’s explanations. Both Okwor and Ikenna, who briefed journalists after their protest on the land , said the land located at Ibeagwa Nike was the subject of a previous government’s acquisition.

They said their families had pleaded with the then state government that eventually released to them a portion , measuring about 99 hectares.

They, however, claimed that their happiness did not last long as the native ruler, Igwe Ugwu , who ought to protect the interest of the community, instead decided to allegedly work hand-in-glove with dishonest government officials in the state ministry of housing to partition and balkanise the little portion of land for selfish reasons.

The leaders claimed that their women had been given an ultimatum to harvest prematurely their crops and uproot their plants on the contentious land as the grabbers had concluded plans to level the land in question any moment from now.