Alleged Land Grabbing:
UMUOYIMA COMMUNITY SEEKS UZODIMMA’S INTERVENTION
-Accuses Iwuanyanwu, Ibejiakor, Chukwuonye, of systemic invasion of their ancestral land
-Asks governor to watch his back, alleging that some govt officials uses his name Forcefully to grab People’s land
By Our Reporter
The people of Umuoyima community in the Owerri Municipal Council, Imo State, have issued a firm and direct warning to alleged land grabbers, speculators and self-styled estate developers attempting to forcefully grab their ancestral land called Ugwumiri Okpo Umuoyima.
The aggrieved people of Umuoyima community, who made their feelings known while speaking to newsmen in Owerri, the capital city of Imo State recently, accused Hon. Amara Iwuanyanwu, deputy Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly, Hon. Ernest Ibejiakor, Honourable Commissioner for Tourism, and Chief Chinedu Chukwuonye, as those trying to unlawfully takeover their ancestral land.
Speaking on behalf of the people of Umuoyima community, Elder Ucheoma Charles, Secretary, Umuoyima Elders Council, who expressed concern over the alleged invasion of their land by persons suspected to be government functionaries, appealed to the governor of the state, Senator Hope Uzodimma, to quickly intervene in the matter by calling the afore-mentioned government officials to order, as according to him, some of the governor’s men in the field are using his name to grab People’s land, a development he said would tarnish his hard-earned reputation if not properly checked.
Testifying that the governor, Senator Uzodimma, does not believe in grabbing people’s property or land, he said that those perpetrating the heinous act, do not mean well for the governor and entire people of the State.
He revealed that the four government officials, who have been squinting their eyes on the community land, connived to wrestle the land from them for selfish reasons.
Furthermore, he expressed shock that Umuoyima went to Court through Barr. Louis Alozie (SAN) against these suspected land grabbers, and for four months, none of them filled a defense. Based on this, their Lawyer, according to him, asked them to continue to possess their land, but Hon. Ernest Ibejiakor, Chinasa Nwaneri and Amara Iwuanyanwu, allegedly started destroying their property and harassing them with police from Tiger Base.
It could be recalled that at the early part of last year, 2025, the deputy Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly, Hon. Amara Iwuanyanwu, attempted to takeover the land in question. While doing that, he claimed that it was given to him by the governor, and presented a CoO that was described by many as fake. He was said to have surrendered when it dawned on him that the people were making a genuine case.
Elder Ucheoma Charles, while speaking to newsmen then, said, “This land we’re talking about is a traditional land owned by us. This land called Ugwumiri Okpo is owned by some families in Umuoyima autonomous community which my family, Ucheoma family, is included. This family land was acquired by the government in 1978 by the Land Use Act, and they created a layout on this land, Umuoyima South Pocket Layout. This is a private layout belonging to the community. They left part of it and called it Open Space (OS). As our population grew, we got crowded out of space. We went to the Ministry of Lands and applied for part of the river open space to be varied for us to enable us provide housing for the increasing number of our children. The Ministry of Lands saw reasons to vary part of the river Open Space (OS2,) for us. The Commissioner that varied it to us is Barr. Enyinnaya Onuegbu, in his first time as Commissioner for Lands, Imo State, in 2022. All the documents are with us. It went through due process in the Ministry of Lands before it was varied to us. We paid heavy tariff, and indeed, every other statutory money for the land to be varied for us by the Ministry”.
Narrating their encounter with Amara Iwuanyanwu and Chinasa Nwaneri when the OCDA was helping them to remove the gate that blocked the entrance that time, Elder Ucheoma said, “On Wednesday, April 30, 2025, Amara Iwuanyanwu, Chinasa Nwaneri and some of their people, came to the site. Instead of allowing the OCDA to remove the gate that blocked the road, he (Amara) started claiming that our land belonged to him. We were surprised, asking what land are you talking about? Is it the one the ministry varied to us four years ago? He maintained that the land belonged to him; that he had a Certificate of Occupancy on the land; that he was given many plots of land at Akachi Residential Layout Annex, but this is Ugwumiri Okpo Umuoyima, and not Akachi Layout Annex. Akachi Residential Layout Annex is a different layout. How can you come to Ugwumiri Okpo Umuoyima to claim land that does not belong to you? Your CoO is reading Akachi Residential Layout Annex.
“For the records, the CoO he is parading is Owerri North, while our land is in Owerri Municipal Council. The layout he is claiming on his CoO, is government layout, ours is private layout. The plot on his CoO is ineligibly read plot A, but our land is parcellated for us from plot 118 to 141. So, there is no connection whatsoever between our land and Amara’s CoO. This is just a case of intimidation and harassment just to grab our land.
“He made us know that the government gave him the land by CoO, but when we went to the Ministry of Lands for confirmation, they said that they were not aware of the CoO. Instead, they stated it clearly that the land had been approved and varied to us; that we should continue to take possession of our land.
“To further tell you that we suffered in the land, we discovered that a High Tension light passed through the land which is very dangerous. We have to reach out to the EEDC and paid more than twenty million naira for the relocation of the High Tension light. We even borrowed money to settle the EEDC”.
However, what surprised everyone is that shortly after Hon. Amara Iwuanyanwu stopped coming or threatening the land owners, Chinedu Chukwuonye, stepped in under the guise of constructing what he called Premium Waterfront Destination, in partnership with the Imo State government.
The people of Umuoyima community, in their usual way, supported the developmental project, but asked him to stay within his limits and not encroach and grab their titled land under government cover. They wrote series of letters and staged protests, asking the Ministry of Lands and Imo State government to call him to order, as he was accused of trying to use the opportunity to grab the land.
One of the protest letters written to the office of the Honourable Commissioner for Lands, Barr. Enyinnaya Onuegbu, dated November 17, 2025, read, “We, the people of Umuoyima community respectfully write to express our deep grievances regarding the unlawful encroachment, intimidation and acts of impunity being perpetrated by CUDOC Construction Company Ltd and its group over our ancestral land. This land is well-documented and verifiable in your Ministry’s records. Yet, it is currently being forcefully taken from us under the guise of constructing a so called Premium Waterfront Destination.
“Honourable Commissioner sir, we earnestly appeal for your urgent intervention. Kindly assist us in informing His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Imo State, that the individuals he entrusted with development responsibilities are instead, inflicting hardship, intimidation and severe pain on us from multiple angles. They have made life unbearable for our people. We cannot breathe anymore.
“We therefore plead with you to ask His Excellency to come to our rescue. We want our land restored to us, and we rely on the protection of the government we have always supported and trusted”.
However, what baffles the people of Umuoyima community, according to Elder Ucheoma, is the role Hon. Ernest Ibejiakor and others are currently playing, and the return of Amara Iwuanyanwu he alleged was dragging their ancestral land with fake CoO which bears Owerri North local government area, instead of Owerri Municipal Council, and also bear 2024, the time the governor suspended the former Commissioner for Lands, Hon. Noble Atulegwu. Explaining further , he said that the date was the period Ministry of Lands had no Commissioner. They asked the governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma and other relevant authorities to, as a matter of urgency, verify the authenticity of Amara Iwuanyanwu’s CoO.
They equally said that “the governor should verify the extent of the land given to Amara if at his CoO is genuine, because Amara and his henchmen take a mile whenever a yard is given to them”.
They concluded by saying, “We want to once again use this opportunity to tell the governor that the people of Imo State are crying under the operation of the people that are working for him. At the end of the day, people will say that all these damages, bad blood and bitterness they are creating were done during the administration of Senator Hope Odidika Uzodimma, hence, he should call them to order.
“We avoided protesting in the streets in order not to embarrass the governor knowing full well that he’s not part or aware of the land grabbing and racketeering some of his appointees have unleashed on Imo State indigenes and residents. Our governor should keep clear eyes because those appointed and put in the field are intimidating and extorting millions in naira from Imo State residents, and turn around and lie to him. Your Excellency, this is what is happening in the State. In order not to lose their land, Imo people are compelled to pay a lot of money to these government appointees. They are not really with you”.
In another development, the Umuoyima community has complained that since few days ago, some members of the community and the buyers of the property, have started getting strange phone calls, asking them to leave the land or lose their lives. They therefore put the society on notice in view of the threatening strange phone calls.
Every effort to reach the accused persons for reaction proved abortive, as they did not pick their calls as at the time of filling this report.
