By Ovat Abeng
Thousands of youths from Ifite village, Nkwelle Ezunaka in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State, have embarked on a peaceful protest over an alleged convertion of their ancestral land by the state government.
The Youths marched round the alledged converted land where the Anambra Government through the State Housing Development Corporation have erected a Housing Estate known as Hillview Estate.
They carried placards with various inscriptions, such as ‘our land are not for sale, ‘Anambra State government do the needful, Anambra State Government pay us our agree compensation, this is an abomination. Government want to forcefully convert our land, no land left for our children again, We shall not agree. Let the governor Soludo hear us. We want governor Soludo’s quick intervention, among others.
Speaking to Journalists shortly after the protest at his Obata’s residence Nkwelle Ezunaka on Monday, the Chairman of Eziubulu family, Hon Vincent Nwankwo, expressed displeasure over the way and manner the Anambra Government is treating Eziubulu family, owners of the say land known as Aboigwugwu land now called Hillview Estate, Ifite village Nkwelle Ezunaka community, Oyi Local Government Area of the State.
He lamented that the State Government has refused to pay them the compensation the both agreed decades ago.
According to Nwankwo, as a means of further passing a message to the Anambra State Housing Development Corporation and the Government as a whole to express our displeasure over the maltreatment and fragrant denial of our entitlements by the Anambra State Housing Development Corporation
“The communal owners of the said land (Eziubulu family) are constitutionally entitled to be adequately compensated for the land which was taking over and converted to a Housing Estate.
“Several emissaries and correspondences have been sent to the Housing Corporation to no avail.
“We urged our solution governor, Chukwuma Soludo to use his good office and constitute a joint committee of both Eziubulu family and the state government representatives, to access the happenings in the Hillview Estate, the youth leader concluded.
The CounselAttorney, Eziubulu family, Barrister Chinedu Ufondu, who also spoke during the briefing, said the community is not happy over what the state government is doing to them.
He urged governor Soludo to urgently intervene in the matter to avoid further break down of law and order in the area.
Responding to the alledged convertion, the Managing Director of the State Housing Development Corporation, Chief Chike Anyaonu faulted the claims by the community, emphasizing that no activity was taking place there until the present administration came on board.
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In a telephone interview, Anyaonu said: “The housing corporation has not redesigned the master plan it inherited.
The estate was established during the administration of Dr. Chris Ngige in 2005 and since then, there had been many board members and Managing Directors of the housing corporation.
“The various administrations were redesigning the estate and it is only this administration that looked at it and discovered that nothing is going on there. We have asked the contractor to start work, otherwise the contract will be revoked, which is why you see all the roads being constructed in the estate.”
According to Anyaonu, the community has been paid the compensation for the land and the problem is that after selling their plots, they turn around to demand for more. The documents are there for everyone to see. Maybe they do not have the original document.
“As we speak, there is already an approval by the state Ministry of Education to establish public primary school in the estate and there are also provisions for markets, hospitals and recreation centers in the documents I inherited. We have not changed the plan since I came into office,” he said..