One was hospitalized as Anambra community protested against security agencies’ brutality

Protests rocked Awkuzu community in Oyi Local Government Area, Anambra State, on Thursday following alleged incessant invasion and encroachment on Nkpan land, said to belong to the Okwesi family of Awkuzu, by the police, military, and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

The protests resulted in the hospitalization of one Michael after he was allegedly assaulted.

The protesters who in the early hours of Thursday, matched through the major roads to the disputed Nkpan land, accused the security operatives of being on the payroll of the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of a real estate developer, (Pineleaf Estate), Bishop Onyeka Nzekwesi, of employing the services of the government security to eject them from their ancestral land.

Addressing newsmen during the protest, the leader and Chairman of the Okwesi family, Chief Charles Okwesi, claimed that Bishop Nzekwesi has consistently used the police, military, and NSCDC to invade intimidate and sack them from their ancestral land.

“Some individuals wrongly sold Okwesi land to Pineleaf CEO without proper verification of genuine ownership. When Pineleaf discovered that he had paid the wrong people, he approached us, the real owners to sell the land to him but we refused because we had arrangements with another estate company and Pineleaf’s CEO vowed that he would take it by force since we refused to sell to him.

“Before today, that was on Wednesday, a team of NSCDC invaded the land, beat up my people working on the land and whisked away one of our local vigilante operatives, he was well tortured and released to die, he is now placed on danger list in the hospital.

“So today’s protest is to urge the IG P, and other heads of the government security agencies to prevail on their men to stop the incessant invasion of our land on the order of Bishop Onyeka Nzekwesi.

“He formerly used Rapid Response Squad, the disbanded Akwuzu SARS, to arrest us on our land, accusing us of being kidnappers and gunmen, just to gain control of the property we inherited from our ancestors,” he further disclosed.

In their various contributions, two chieftains of the Okwesi family, Nwoye, aged 74 and Osita, aged 65, said that the land was inherited by them through their ancestors and urged Bishop Nzekwesi to hands off the land and stop using security men to eject them.

Recall that Bishop Nzekwesi had earlier when the land issue started denied the repeated allegations leveled against him today by the Okwesi family disclosing that instead, the Okwesi family was part of the land deal but they turned around to use another family to make demands on him when he had already given them monetary settlement.

Bishop Nzekwesi added that he bought the land in question from three communities of Awkuzu, Ifitedunu and Umunya while he made sure he settled all concerned to avoid issues.

“Surprisingly, the Okwesi family who were part of the deal went behind to introduce another buyer to the property. They invaded the place with dangerous weapons and destroyed and looted things worth over N7 million but still, I decided to let them go scot-free after the police arrested and detained them.

On the government security agents’ incessant invasion of the disputed Land, he said 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 on the land.