Anambra Women Protest Half Naked Against The State Government Over Land Grabbing
Unfortunately, the state government has chosen to grab our land forcefully, we can farm, our children have no land to inherit anymore, over 300+ building are map for demolition, we are becoming a homeless refugee in our land
Yes we gave the state government (729 hectares) 14 years ago, not the (1,200 hectares) the state government has forcefully grab, taking away our lands from us, We are saying No to inhumanity and in days from now we are coming out in mass to stop the project
Happening in Anambra state, eastern Nigeria, as hundreds of women from Umueri in the Anambra East council area on Monday 8th Match 2021
Their took to the streets to protest the state government’s forceful takeover of their land under the pretext of building an airport—and they did it half-naked.
Such half-naked pictures of our great women FROM Anambra are not good for the eyes, so we cant share online… No same reporter will share such
This being a wake-up call to the state government to listen to the call of the women and the host community
The women came out in their large number, stripped and tore their clothes into a state of semi-nudity, and accused Governor Wille Obiano and his administration of land grabbing for personal gain.
In the half-naked state, they marched around the airport premises, set up bonfires on the airport road while they chanted for help.
They vowed to resist attempts to take away their children’s inheritance and their farmland
Among complaints written on their placards, they said, three communities of Enugu, Umuinu, and Umuopu gave 729 hectares to the government under former governor Chris Ngigie, but Obiano’s government forcefully took another 1,200 hectares.
In their voice, We did not give the State Government 1,200 hectares of land, but 729 hectares of land and that was 14 years ago, why is the Government lead by Obiano paying us back with evil, why is the government forcefully taking over our land.
“Obiano, go back to the 729.606 hectares of land originally gazette for the airport project,” they cry out
In another, “We can’t allow this project to go on if the government signs no MOU with our community we are coming out in mass in days from now to stop the entire project
Anambra government has taken over our lands; where do we farm? Are we to become refugees in our land?”
Speaking, the chairman of the community, Uchenna Ndumanya described the development as unfortunate and wicked.
“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 land. forcefully, is that fair?
“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. but this time around, we are coming out to put an end to the project until our lands are returned to us
We wrote a petition to the Commissioner of Police, the Directorate of State Service, nothing has happened. not even a reply from them
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.
Sold some part of the land to themselves, that being a private and personal project, not state own properties anymore. this is evil and the particular place we gave them, they left it and nothing has been done there.
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We are here to let the world hear our cry because all our efforts had been scuttled.
DO YOU KNOW? 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.”
Ndumanya said, if the government was allowed to have its way on the matter, no fewer than 300 buildings in the community would have been demolished.
He said, “The airport work is going on but not on the land we originally gave the government.
They have rather shared the original land we gave them amongst themselves and encroached into our land to build the airport. The implication is that Aguleri has succeeded in relocating Umueri from our ancestral and original place. We don’t want the airport again.
We can’t be displaced because of the airport. We thought the airport will bring development to our land, we didn’t know they are thinking of another.
We will continue this protest by staying for one month on this road. All these houses, schools will be demolished according to their plans for the airport.
The whole of this community will be displaced if we allow this their evil machinations to work. We won’t allow that to be.”
On behalf of the state government, the commissioner for works Marcel Ihejiofor did not comment.
He told AfriNOTES he was in an exco council and could not speak on the matter for now, but promise to get back to us
