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Legal practitioner, Barrister Ijeoma Nwakamma-Okoro is extremely unsettled that all her late father and famous lawyer of the 70s, Mazi Nwakamma Okoro, laboured for in his youthful age to acquired landed properties in Enugu have been ‘fraudulently’ taken over by the Umuchigbo-Nike community in Enugu East local government area of Enugu state.

According to Ijeoma, many years ago her late father bought two parcels of land from Umuchigbo-Iji Nike community and packaged one of the parcels as a layout with his friend and partner, Chief R.O. Nkwocha and named the layout RONO Industrial Layout Planning Scheme.

In one of the Lands Registry documents cited by our reporter, Neci Land Development Corporation limited, promoters and the original owners of RONO Industrial layout made two Deeds of Lease dated April 23 1974 and May 6 1975, respectively, with Clement Ezeoha and 15 others, being the lawfully appointed Attorney of the people of Umuchigbo Iji-Nike in Nkanu Division.

The RONO Industrial layout measuring approximately 24.2 hectares located in the present day Emene area, around the old airport road, was approved in 1976 and registered in Lands Registry as 65/65/512 in Anambra state of Nigeria gazette No 1, vol. 2, dated 13th January 1977 under the Town and Country Planning law (Cap. 126). The gazette was endorsed by the then commissioner for works and Housing, Anambra state of Nigeria, Mr. Ben Okwo.

Neci land Development Corporation limited having taken possession of the RONO Industrial Layout, thereafter made subleases to institutions such as John Holts Limited in October 31 1977, Union Bank Plc, among others. Years after, as development encroached, Neci Lands limited applied to the Enugu Town Planning Authorities for variation orders, to enable it alter the layout’s master plan to accommodate some other growing aspects of development in Enugu capital city.

The Nwakamma Okoros were home and well with their flourishing estate development business, when sometime in 2002, the Umuchigbo- Nike community annexed the RONO Industrial layout without the knowledge of the Neci Land Corporation limited, which the community had sold off the land to in 1974. Since then, Neci Land has been full of complaints, running from pillar to post to retrieve their property, but the Umuchigbo community had already distorted, superimposed and craftily registered no less than five other layouts on the same RONO and New Town layouts and sold off portions of the land to the unsuspecting public.

The distortion and illegal layouts created by the community, which the Ministry of Lands confirmed as superimpositions include: Akpapiama pocket layout, Nkpologu layout, Ugbo pocket layout, Ugwunchi pocket layout and Ugbo Nnebedum land pocket layout.

Narrating her ordeal, Ijeoma Nwakamma-Okoro said: “We didn’t know that Nike people are so unruly, and it started shortly after Igwe Edward Nnaji died, who was a very decent man, commended a lot of respect from his people that he couldn’t have stood for the kind of bad behavior that we have experienced in the hands his people.

“So, Nike people now decided that they should sell the land and distort the approved layout. They carved out empty spaces which they sold to people. What we did was to cry out to the government, we actually wanted to file a suit but we were able to have the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority assist us by enforcing some order by insisting that the layout be respected.

“The Nike people actually went out and obtained layouts and superimposed layouts over an already existing layout. We were not in Enugu then and we were not aware when this community did all that.

“I want the state government to help us restore the layout to its original form because it’s a chunk of layout with lots of land involved in that piece of layout which they sold to innocent victims who believed they were buying approved government layout and the Capital territory has met with the victims and negotiated with them for them to pay us and do whatever paper work we need to do to restructure the pieces of lands involved; some have responded, most have not.”

Nwakamma Okoro said that over 20 people fell as victims to this fraud, stating they (Neci land) did not waste their time going into any negotiation with the Umuchigbo community, since the community had already collected money from their victims.

Investigation further revealed that RONO Industrial layout was not the only such affected land grabbing deal, but there are also some others such as the City layout bought by the late Chief R.O Nkwocha from Umuenwene Iji-Nike in 1977.

In the case of City layout, police investigation in 2016 had already declared the variation order of 2000, obtained by the native community as erroneous and defective. The police investigation raised issue of criminal trespass to the land, malicious damage of property, uttering of false survey beacons, which the command agreed was a breach of town planning law by persons who had partitioned the City Layout contrary to master plan MG/434A/76 which is deemed as the only valid plan for the city layout as provided in section 14 of the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority Act 2009.

In clear violation of law and fraudulent confiscation of the RONO layout, the Umuchigbo Nike community, represented by Hon. Edward Ubosi (Present Speaker of Enugu State House of Assembly) who was then the Chairman Executive Council Umuchigbo Iji-Nike Community and Beloved Dan Anike as then Chairman Umuchigbo Iji-Nike lands, Works and Survey Committee, issued irrevocable power of Attorney to most of their victims between 2002 and 2010. Such victims include: Huzzle Gil Enterprises Nigeria limited who was awarded 2045.908 square meters of land with other victims at the illegal Ugwunchi pocket layout.

Another victim, Mr. Eloka Omaliko was equally awarded over 1,662 square meters of land at the same illegitimate Ugwunchi pocket layout and in which Hon. Edward Ubosi, Beloved Dan Anike, Dr. Luke Anike and nine others endorsed the lease agreement erroneously issued to Omaliko on March 10 2004. Same thing was done to Ozenco Construction Company limited.

At Akpapiama, one of the trumped-up layouts, the same members of Umuchigbo Iji-Nike community led Thaddeus Ogbobe, F.O Ojai, Godwin Nwoga, Rev. Adimchinaobi Udeh, Ozo Peter Onwudinjo among others, into land agreement deals in a parcel of land the community had previously sold to Neci Land Development Corporation limited in 1976.

Dazed with complaints, the Enugu State Ministry of Lands, Survey and Town Planning on December 12 2021 issued cancellation order of Ugwunchi pocket layout on the grounds that the scheme was framed within an already approved Reno Industrial layout, Emene, Enugu.

Curiously, the then Director of Town Planning, Mr. J.D Ngwu, who issued the cancellation notice, was the same officer who registered the superimposed Ugwunchi layout TP/1049/09 of July 18 2003, when he was a junior Town Planning officer in charge of Enugu East Central Town Planning Authority.

In separate petitions to the Nigerian Police in 2016, the Enugu Capital territory Development Authority in January 2018, Neci Land accused the Umuchigbo community members of gross violation of both RONO and New Town layouts master plans. “We request an investigation and prosecution of these defaulters under the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority Law No. 5 2009,” prayed Neci land secretary, Edo-Osagie Valentine.

The then Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ujam in response to the commissioner of police request for investigation in the matter, replied the police that “following thorough investigation it was discovered that the purported layouts listed below do not exist in our records as approved layouts: Akpapiama pocket layout, Nkpologu layout, Ugbo pocket layout, Ugwunchi pocket layout and Ugbo Nnebedum land pocket layout.”

Subsequently, the Ministry of Lands confirmed massive distortion of the master plan of RONO Industrial layout, leading that it erroneously approved the Ugwunchi layout for Umuchigbo-Nike community without knowing it was superimposed on a registered RONO Industrial layout. “Subsequently, when this mistake was discovered, the Ugwunchi pocket layout was cancelled immediately via a letter with reference number TP/1049/09 dated 12th December 2012,” wrote Tpl. Ngene C.C the Acting Director (Town Planning) in 2019.

The Physical Planning and Development Control (PPDC) of the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) headed by Chinedu Ozochioke on its own investigation submitted that there was “Massive distortion of the master plan of RONO Industrial Layout,” noting that it was the duty of government to ensure strict compliance of the city master plan. The department however recommended that all parties may be invited for a meeting with the agency in possession of their title documents for regularization. The ECTDA in 2020 invited the affected persons but had only 10 persons in attendance.

Speaking on the update of the matter, the current Commissioner for Lands, Dr. Victor Nnam said that even though his predecessors had treated the matter, land speculators in Nike still come out one layout or the other. He described what the community did as a fraudulent act, noting that if the community had issue with Neci Land Development Corporation limited, the community would have gone to court to challenge the company.

“The way out is that the general public should do proper search before purchasing any land, especially community land, to ensure that they are not in conflict with any other private land or government lay out,” Nnam advised.

But the former Chairman Umuchigbo Iji-Nike lands, Works and Survey Committee, Pastor Beloved Dan Anike said that Nwakamma Okoro was the Umuchigbo community lawyer against N I Uko before the Nigeria Civil war erupted in 1967 because, according to him, the Emene people sold the Umuchigbo land boarding from the present NNPC mega station (an area also referred to as naira triangle) up to Innoson Company, at both sides of Enugu-Abakaliki road and which the Umuchigbo used Nwakama as their Attorney.

“But documents shows that by April 1972 the people who are supposed to be our clients shared the land that we retrieved from the Emene people by mediation into three and gave Nwakamma one part of the one third which is against the ethics of the law profession because you can’t be attorney to a client and also be an interested party. So in about 1990, our people exercised the right to re-enter the land under Agbo Anike.

“So when I came up there was confusion, claims from Nwakamma and from the ones Umuchigbo sold and the best I could do was mediation. There was also the issue of R.O. Nkwocha, but Nwakamma did a lot of land racketeering with the community and tried to mortgage all the land of the community which included RONO, Standard layout and of late Udoka. There are lacunas in all the documents; you will see intention to cheat and intention to defraud. In RONO, the documents we have show that they paid N4, 000 out of about N20, 000 that was agreed and he did pay the rest and that shows that he is only right to the extent he paid for,” said Pastor Anike.

However, the present Chairman of Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA), Dr. Josef Onoh said that the agency has marked over 500 buildings in the affected illegal layouts for demolition.

Onoh insinuated that that the ongoing face-off his agency and the Ministry of Land is having with the Enugu State House of Assembly may be connected with the verified land fraud by some members of Umuchigbo community, where the Speaker of the House of the House hails from and who Chairman of the community when the land fraud was committed.

The Enugu state House of Assembly has been on the neck of the Ministry of Lands and the ECTDA, accusing them of land grabbing, extortion and scaring away potential investors in the state. But Onoh disclosed that his agency has sought for the cooperation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC in the land fraud allegedly perpetuated by highly placed persons in Umuchigbo-Nike community.

He noted that it was in the agency’s bid to halt double taxation and scale up revenue generation for the state that the illegal levy, ‘Youth Empowerment,’ previously collected by local government councils in the state capital was scrapped, which he said infuriated political actors from the affected local government councils, particularly from Enugu East local government council where the Speaker hails from.

“We found out that over 500 properties don’t have approvals and Enugu East local government is the main hub where the state government has lost over N1 billion in land fraud and racketeering. There was a lot of pressure on me to give approvals to these illegalities which I resisted and the actors in the House of Assembly are involved in this fraud, yet the House is accusing the Executive arm of land grabbing. The ministry of lands and Enugu capital territory investigation in these land frauds brought about the House of Assembly's use of media to tarnish the image of the executive arm’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

“But we are going to partner fully with the EFCC, ICPC and other security agencies to see how these characters can be brought to book and prosecuted in the law court under the Advance Fee Fraud Act which attracts 20 years imprisonment. All these may not be unconnected with the reason why I’ve been receiving harassments from the House of Assembly because our drive has unsettled some people in the leadership of the House of Assembly,” Onoh said.

Adding to Onoh' s allegation, Ijeoma Nwakamma-Okoro said "I can show you plots that were sold by the Speaker himself."

When contacted, the Enugu state House of Assembly Speaker, Hon. Edward Ubosi could not pick his calls nor respond to message sent to him over the allegation.

Is there no single corrupt free politican in Nigeria

We need God’s intervention in every aspect of our existence and living.

Men in power always stealing from the poor, when will the poor man get rich.

Go court and stop disturbing me

Land grabbing should be discouraged al all levels.. Justice must prevail..

Doesn’t sound strange
It’s the way the powerful has always oppressed the less powerful one in the country and they get away with it

Homeboiy:
Go court and stop disturbing me

Lol