They claimed the ex-minister had forcibly taken over their ancestral land during a press conference on Friday in Enugu.
The community members carried placards with inscriptions such as “Barth Nnaji has rendered our people homeless”, “His Excellency, Gov. Peter Mbah, please save us”; and “Barth Nnaji leave our land alone”.
The Nkorom Onuogba community who migrated from Ezza in Ebonyi State appealed to Governor Peter Mbah to save them from being completely rendered homeless.
Speaking through Rev. Stephen Itumo as a spokesperson, the community expressed remorse over Nnaji’s sudden appearance and destruction of their houses, saying they had lived in the area for a long time.
Itumo claims that Nnaji, the former minister of power, invaded the neighbourhood with eight bulldozers and over a hundred armed security guards, demolishing people’s homes and destroying their farms.
He claimed the Onuogba people, with whom the community had a property issue, later sold the land to a man named Titus Alinta.
Itumo questioned why Nnaji was the one tearing down their property, stating that the case was still pending in court.
“We woke up Monday morning to find hundreds of policemen and bulldozers in our community, pulling down our houses.
“This land belongs to us. We will not let anyone take it away from us. When they came to execute the order in 2013, they demolished 264 buildings and raped our women,” Itumo alleged.
Itumo narrated how they migrated to Enugu State.
“Nkwubor people, a neighbouring community, had a land dispute with Onuogba Nike around 1958 that made Onuogba Nike people approach my people in Ebonyi State who were warriors to help them defeat Nkwubor people.
“We came, fought the war and defeated their enemies which made them settle our forefathers with this land after a written agreement and oath-taking.”
The conflict began in 1974, according to community attorney Jessie-Daniels Onuigbo, when the Onuogba Nike community—neighbors of the Nkomoro—filed a lawsuit in court asserting possession of the land.
The Nkomoro community contested the court’s decision in favour of the Onuogba Nike community.
The Nkomoro community filed an appeal with the Supreme Court when the Court of Appeal affirmed the ruling, but they were not happy.
Onuigbo claims that although the Supreme Court is still considering the appeal, Nnaji, who is said to have purchased the contested land from Alinta, has been attempting to seize the land by force.
“We were not represented in court when Prof. Nnaji got a judgment to demolish the homes.
“We have filed an appeal against the judgment and are waiting for the court to decide on the matter,” Onuigbo explained.
In response, Nnaji stated that he had purchased the land from Alinta in 2000 and had owned it for more than 20 years.
Alinta bought the land from the Onuogba community in 1977, and after receiving a Certificate of Occupancy in 1987, Nnaji transferred ownership to him in 2000. Nnaji made this statement through his surveyor, Okwuchukwu Nnaji.
He added that Alinta appeared in court alongside the Nkomoro Onuogba community, and that after his passing, his children pursued the case until 2013, when the Enugu State High rendered a decision.
The execution order, he added, went into effect right away.
“It was in the process of executing that order that the Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Bishop Onaga intervened.
“But, the settlement did not work out. Hence, the recent demolition was in continuation of that execution order.
“They have no evidence of staying out of the execution order and the land in dispute is approximately 103 hectares. I have a letter of authority from Nnaji to parcellate the land,” he told News Agency of Nigeria.
