PHIL OKOSE, Onitsha
No fewer than three persons were said to have been arrested with guns as they encroached on the land allegedly owned by the Okwesi family in Akwuzu, Oyi Local Government Area, Anambra State.
Their alleged arrest, it was gathered was a sequel to a written petition by the family to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun , disclosing that their ancestral land is being encroached upon by the suspects who it was learned have continued to encroach on the land with arms despite a repeated warning to vacate the land.
Charles Okwesi, the chairman of the Okwesi family, while reacting to the arrest commended the IGP stating that the Chief Executive Officer of Pineleaf Estate, Bishop Onyeka Nzekwesi, used the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), stationed at Akwuzu, to arrest them on their own land, labeling them criminals to be jailed.
“Nzekwesi also brought soldiers to assist and disposses us of our land which resulted in the people of Awkuzu fleeing the community in droves over fear of attack since the soldiers were armed to the teeth parading the streets.
“Among the three that were arrested with guns to disposes us of our land included Prince Gozie Obinabu from a neighbouring community, Ifite Dunu, and they have been whisked to Abuja by the IGP monitoring team that came from Abuja.
“We are very happy with the arrest because those arrested are working for Pineleaf Estate management who has been threatening us in our land and telling us that if we are jailed nobody will speak for us. We have constantly been attacked by land grabbers at the land located at Nkpan village by armed thugs that wanted to grab the land.
“We can’t allow them to disposses us of our land instead let them kill us all there because they feel they have the money to intimidate us and the Pineleaf CEO has told us in our face that our efforts to stop him is like a storm in a tea cup,” he disclosed.
Nzekwesi in a swift reaction to the arrest maintained that he had no armed men and was never violent as claimed by Okwesi’s family.
“I am not even violent, I don’t have armed men, what I have are staff, genuine security men. I don’t destroy people’s property,” he stated.
On Soldiers’ presence on the land earlier, Nzekwesi clarified that drafting soldiers into the land for security was the sole arrangement of the concerned villagers who decided to protect their own against invaders and to prevent serious security breaches.
The spokesperson for the Anambra State Police Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, when contacted said that he could not comment on the matter as it was under higher authority.
Ikenga while declining further comments stated also that the incident was outside the state police jurisdiction, maintaining that only the Force Headquarters could comment on the issue.
