Despite denying that it took 288 dispute hectares of land illegally, the Anambra State Government has finally the disputed hectares to Umueri community in Anambra East local government.
Obiano who met with the leadership of Umueri at the weekend returned 288 hectares of the land to them with promises to return more.
According to sources, part of the agreement reached at the meeting between the state government and the community include naming Cargo Airport road as ‘Anambra Cargo Airport road, Umueri’
Women in the community took to the streets six days ago, protesting naked over the acquisition of their land by the government without consultation.
The Women who stripped half-naked accused Governor Wille Obiano and his administration of land grabbing for personal gain.
They marched around the airport premises, set up bonfires on the airport road as they chanted sorrowful songs.
Also Read: Women protest half-naked in Anambra over Obiano’s airport project
They vowed to resist attempts to take away their children’s inheritance.
Uchenna Ndumanya, the chairman of the community described the development as unfortunate and wicked, Daily Post reports.
“We are the people of Ifite Umueri. We are the people that donated airport land to the Anambra State Government during the Dr Chris Ngige regime, about 14 years ago.
“When we donated the land we gave them about 729.66 hectares but now they have left that particular place we donated to them and just encroached into our individual land.
“They are now encroaching into about 1901 hectares, about three times of what we gave to the state government. We had our first protest on the matter in 2019. And since then nothing has been done.
“We have petitioned to the Commissioner of Police, the Directorate of State Service, nothing has happened. We have gone to the governor’s office; gone to SSG’s office. Day-by-day, they are building on the land with impunity; sharing the land amongst themselves. And the particular place we gave them, they left it and nothing has been done there.
“We are here to let the world hear our cry because all our efforts had been scuttled. The governor is from Aguleri, the Commissioner for Works is from Aguleri; the Chief of Staff is from Aguleri, virtually every top government official in the state is from Aguleri.”
