Photo: Umuolea Kindred in court today in Owerri
By Ugo Jim-Nwoko, reporting from
Owerri
The land grabbing dispute between Imo State government and Umuolea Kindred of Umuchie Eziama in Ngor/Okpala hieghtened in court today, the 16th of January 2025 at the Imo State High Court in Owerri.
Appearing before the Judge, Justice Clement Akobundu , and in absence of the lawyers of Imo State government who have serially failed to be in court despite being served; the lawyer to the plaintiff Mr. Ngozi Olehi, SAN, sought the exparte order of court for an interim injuction stopping the Imo State Government, their agents, the Nigerian Army and Nigerian police from the continued harrasment of the people of Umuolea in their community and on their farm land this farming season. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, told the court that a lorry load of Nigerian Army and Police armed to the teeth accompained over twenty bulldozers of Imo State government to excavate the farmlands belonging to the Umuolea Kindred, destroying their palm plantations, crops and other economic resources of the Umuolea and their neighbours thereby providing a leeway for the infliction of hunger and poverty of the people with a tendency to worsen the economic crises in the country at large.
The presiding judge however preferred not to to grant the exparte order of interim injuction ,but rather gave an order to fastrack the hearing of the substantive matter. To that effect the Hon. Court ordered that the decision of the court to hear the substantive matter be communicated to the Solicitor-General of Imo State and that the Defendants are to appear in court on the 23rd of January 2025 for hearing of the substantive matter on the Umuolea ancestral farmlands which they accused Imo State government of forcefully grabbing for their own economic and political interests and those of the Leader of Zion Ministry Incorporated , Evangelist Ebuka Obi.
It would be recalled that last year, a Save Our Soul visit was paid by the Umuolea Kindred of Ngor/Okpala to the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri, and the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji on the same land grabbing quagmire. According to Barrister Enyinna Onuegbu, Chief Political Adviser to Governor Hope Uzodimma, the land in question has been acquired by the Imo State government seventeen years ago during the Achike Udenwa Administration in line with the Land Use Act 1978, but has been given to Zion Ministry Incorporated for the establishment of their Church headquaters , factories manufacturing red candles, olive oil, holy water and for the building of old peoples home.