The intractable crisis rocking Obeagu and Amechi-Uwani Awkunanaw communities over the disputed Enugu Golf and Lifestyle city, otherwise known as Centenary city in Enugu South local government area, has taken a new dimension.
This time, the communities, irked by what they called endless killings and incarceration of youths from the affected areas, have dragged the Enugu State government, two senior officers of Enugu State police command and the developers of the estate, Private Estates International West Africa limited (PEIWA), to the National Assembly.
In separate appeals to the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, the two communities drew the attention of the National Assembly to the ordeal they were facing.
They made an urgent plea for the House to use its oversight function in resolving the cases of senseless killings, ensure prosecution on investigations made by the police in the killings of youths and incarceration of others in various police and correctional facilities across the country over the land crisis in both communities, for the interest of justice, law and order.
The two communities had at different times petitioned the Police Service Commission and the Enugu State police command on the excesses of two senior police officers, alleging that they compromised their positions by completely working for PEIWA and assisting the company to harass, arrest, intimidate and take over their land in clear negation of the operation of the Nigeria Police.
The communities said that they resorted to the National Assembly as their last resort when all hopes appeared lost in the face of the most vicious land grabbing spree, and illegal acquisition of their ancestral lands, followed by reprehensible demolitions perpetrated against them first by PEIWA.
The communities lamented the gruesome murder of a police officer, Inspector Celestine Orodiovwe of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Annex, Enugu, in December 2021, who was investigating the land grabbing case they reported against “some hirelings of the PEIWA,” adding that between 2021 and 2022, the murder of Chidera Ogaba, Comrade Kelvin Ezeoha, Sunday Ngene of Obeagu, among others took place in same pattern, where hooded men were reportedly used to perpetrate the dastardly acts.
“Having said all that, we wish to draw your attention to the persistent invasion of our community and the numerous arrests of our people by the Enugu State Police Command.
“We therefore pray that you cause the Inspector General of Police to direct particularly the Department of Force Intelligence (DFI), and Zone 13 Police Zonal Command, Dunukofia, Anambra State to charge to court all the cases we reported for which investigations have been concluded against these land grabbers and their hirelings, in order to deter others and by so doing, protect us from their stranglehold.
“In the case of DFI, our investigation has been concluded since 2021, and the case file reportedly forwarded to the FDPP appears to have been buried. It is our request that you demand an update in respect of this case file and ensure it is resurrected and revisited for the interest of justice,” the petitioners pleaded.
When contacted on development, the Enugu State Police Command failed to make any comment, while PEIWA’s Chamberlin Mbachu stated that his firm properly acquired the disputed land from the Enugu State government in 2009.
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