By: Ade Phillips
Some residents of Obollo town in Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State have urged the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to intervene on imminent communal clash that is capable of claiming many lives if left unchecked in the area.
According to the Nation, this was made known by the Spokesman of the community, Prince Matthew Agu while speaking with newsmen at a press conference in Enugu at the weekend.
The people also accused a former governor of the state of using his allies and some high ranking police officers to instigate a crisis in the community in order to grab communal land.
The people, who also wrote a plea for urgent intervention, titled ‘Grand high level conspiracy aimed at creating communal war and incarcerating Obollo people on charges of terrorism’ and addressed to the Inspector General of Police, explained that some compromised policemen had already perfected plans to arrest the people of the village and tagging them terrorists and IPOB members in order to keep them away for a long time by the time the imminent crisis erupts.
Agu disclosed that the ex-governor, as a sitting governor, had demanded for a large expanse of land, measuring over 70 acres, for the establishment of a dry sea port in Obollo-Afor, a request that was granted with the understanding that it was for public good.
“But as the years rolled by, we discovered that he had tricked us into donating the land. It was clear that he was planning to grab the property for his personal use. We kicked against it because that land is not for anybody’s personal use,” Agu said.
He added that seeing that he could not achieve his plan of taking the land for himself, through the dry sea port story, the former governor informed one of the clans in the community to claim ownership of the property, against an existing court order indicating that the land belongs to the entire Oha Obollo and not one particular clan.
Recounting several attempts made by the ex-governor through a serving police DIG who hails from the same local government area to frustrate efforts to resolve the issue legally, Agu alleged that the police in the state had been compromised.
“Inspector General, this is a high-level conspiracy against Obollo people to incriminate and cramp my people to jail in their own judgment. Recall that in my petition dated August 21, 2023, I told you about how a DIG, then a CP, had made himself available to make sure that my people of Obollo were dealt with criminally.
“Same with a former governor of the state who wanted this property for official purposes, but when the property was made available to him for that very purpose, he reneged and wanted to personalise our property using other guises.
“He has used his appointees and these he aided in the police force together with the judiciary to make sure that my people are destroyed to the extent that the police in Enugu turn a blind eye to whatever the judgement debtors do but flames to high heaven at the slightest opportunity to incriminate my people.
“In 2018, I, the leader of the community, was clamped to the prison yard, where I spent 8 days, and when the DPP wrote their report that I am the rightful owner of the property and brought me out of the prison yard, the then governor insisted that the then Attorney General must resign. This was to be, but for the intervention of late Justice C.C. Nweze of the Supreme Court.
“I strongly suspect that the officer in charge (OC) Legal has been compromised to ensure that the judgement debtors are in occupation while the judgement creditors go on a wild goose chase of seeking due process.”
The residents vowed to deploy all legal means available to them to resist the forceful takeover of their land for personal use, regretting that the instigators of the crisis were only looking for mayhem in the town.
He then urged the IGP to intervene so as not to allow the anger of members of the community to snowball into a full-blown crisis that could consume many lives and property, staying that the police boss should investigate the matter and return the judgement creditors back to their property.
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