Three persons alleged to be land grabbers in Oba, Idemili South Local Government Area, Anambra have been arrested by the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Special Monitoring team.
They attested for alleged encroachment and destruction of property worth N100million at Ugbo land.
Those arrested include Mr. Amala Ndozie, Ikenna Onunkwo and Samuel Onuchukwu.
Two others suspects reportedly escaped arrest.
Speaking to newsmen Chairman of Umuokokpa village, Comrade Ejike Madunagu, said the villagers woke up to behold destructions of residential buildings, fences, and farmlands by people known to the community as land grabbers.
“What they do is that they encroach on any land/property to incite communal crisis among families/communities and then commence sale of such land while it is in crisis.
“So in this case I immediately petitioned the IGP and he sent his
Special Monitoring team that came and arrested three out of five of
them while two others are at large.
“They claimed to be members of Elders’ Forum (O.E.F) that is not in
existence in Oba and accused the police of demanding money from them to be released.
“They should stop accusing the police team and allow the team to
do its investigation as they cannot escape the wrath of the law.”
Speaking, the President General of Aboji Akanano Union, Chief Dozie
Nweke, said, “I heard of the arrest of some of my subjects over
destruction of property . It was one of them arrested, Samuel
Onuchukwu, that called me and told me that they were arrested in
connection with encroachment and destruction by the chairman of Okokpa village, Comrade Ejike Madunagu.
“Before the arrest, I appointed a committee to look into the
destruction with a view to settling it. The police have right to arrest and I urge them to do proper investigation and I stand here to
say that there is nothing like Elders Forum in Oba because if there is
I should know as the PG”
In defence of the suspects, the chairman of the Elders’ Forum where they claimed to belong, Chief Raphael Okonkwo, and his
secretary, Chief Obi Onowu, condemned the arrest and detention of Chief Ndozi and others saying they were innocent of the offence and accused the police team of demanding N400, 000 bribe to release the suspects.
The forum said, “the demand for such huge money for bail is a
dent on the already bartered image of the Nigeria Police as well as
negates the position of IGP on zero corruption of the Police.”
The Elders’ Forum unequivocally demand that the Police should
immediately and unconditionally release Chief Amala Ndozi.
“The CP Elema in charge of the monitoring team should be made to face disciplinary action from the
Police Service Commission (PSC) and IGP for abusing his office and
bringing the name of Police to disrepute.”
The Elders’ Forum said that after 24 hours of the briefing and Chief
Ndozi was not set free , they would mobilise over one million Oba
citizens to march to Police to protest and demand for his immediate release.
”We demand that CP Elema and his team who arrested Ndozi should be reprimanded and sent to refresher course to learn to be in tune with the current reality of Policing.”
Ends
