Alleged Land Grabbing: Communal War Imminent In Delta As Isah-Ogwashi Dares Ubulu-Okiti, Aniagbala, Ubulu-Uku Communities

By Frank Oshanugor

The relative peace that has pervaded communities in Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State in the last few years may soon be a thing of the past as a family in Isa-Ogwashi has allegedly unleashed terror on the people of Ubulu-Okiti for crying out over the illegal acquisition and sell of their land to desperate ‘investors.’

On one hand, authorities of the Delta State Police Command, Asaba may not be helping matters as they are alleged to have been bought over by the suspected land grabbers who are now billionaires from the proceeds of the land illegally appropriated and sold to some investors.

Speaking with Atlanticnewsonline in Delta State last Tuesday, Chief Linus Osemene, the Ogwuluzeme of Ubulu-Okiti said the land issue began in May, 2023 when the Utomi family of Isah-Ogwashi led by Ngozi Utomi, Chekwube Utomi and Stanley came into Ubulu-Okiti land belonging precisely to Ogbease quarters and started bull-dozing. The Ubulu-Okiti youths who saw and confronted them, asked questions why they should be on the land, the Isah-Ogwashi people contended that the land belonged to them stretching from the Benin-Asaba Expressway to Isah-Ogwashi, a community located between Ubulu-Uku and Ogwashi-Uku main town.

The Isah-Ogwashi people argued that through the use of GPS (Global Positioning System) equipment, they discovered that they own the land in question, moreso that their fore-fathers told them that the land belonged them.

Following such contention by the Isah people, quarrel reportedly ensued between Ubulu- Okiti youths and the Isah-Ogwashi people. In the process, according to Chief Osemene, youths of Ubulu-Okiti seized the battery of the bulldozer, thus demobilising it from bull-dozing the land further. The seized battery was taken to the head chief of Ogbease quarters who in turn summoned a mass of elders to determine what next step to take either to officially report to police or otherwise.

The elders were still contemplating on step to take when a call came to one of them that Isah people were on their way to Ubulu Okiti to seek a peaceful solution of the matter. The Okiti people felt relaxed and anxiously waited for them but contrary to their expectations, some policemen soon arrived with a copy of petition.

On arrival, the police team gave a copy of the petition to the Ubulu-Okiti elders. It was allegedly written by the Utomi family represented by Ngozi, Chekwube and Stanley. In the light of the petition, according to Chief Osemene, Ubulu-Okiti people were invited to the police Area Command Headquarters, Ogwashi-Uku.

It was alleged that even when Ubulu Okiti people subsequently honoured the invitation and as they were at the Area Command making statements to the police, the bull-dozing operation continued. This was in 2023.

Days later, the bulldozers were still in operation on the controversial land thus prompting Ubulu-Okiti youths to engage the Isah-Ogwashi people in a fight, following which the Utomis went back to the police, accusing Okiti youths of kidnap, assault and other criminal accusations. It was gathered that one of the Isah-Ogwashi hatchet men was taken away by Okiti along with the battery of the bull-dozer to show their people as evidence of the invasion of their land.

The Okiti people were once again invited to Area Command during which some police officers brazenly declared that they had interest in the matter and surprisingly turned the whole matter against Ubulu-Okiti people and subsequently went after the youths.

The youths reportedly went into hiding but some elders including one Chief John Dumbili, his cousin Emma Obaje, Chief Osemene himself were detained until the Ogwashi-Uku monarch, Obi Okonjo intervened ordering police to release them. The king was said to have condemned the way and manner Isah-Ogwashi people invaded and took ownership of the land without resort to the Ogwashi-Uku leadership.

The monarch reportedly described the Isah-Ogwashi people involved in the land matter as “dissidents, land grabbers, criminals and so on.” Ubulu Okiti people later visited the king’s palace to further seek peaceful solution but the Isah-Ogwashi brothers have continued to leverage on their money power to make peace impossible.

They have continued to ravage Ubulu-Okiti land down to Anigbala area which traditionally belonged Ubulu-Uku. In their land grabbing desperation, the Isah-Ogwashi brothers have gone ahead to illegally acquire hectares of land in Anigbala area which a prominent family in Ubulu-Okiti got way back in 1960 from the then King of Ubulu-Uku. A well placed member of the family (name withheld) confirmed to Atlanticnewsonline that the land has a valid Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) which the land grabbers were not mindful of, in the desperation to acquire the land.

It was gathered from sources close to the Utomi family that one of the investors who acquired land through them paid as much as N300million, while no fewer than 15 investors are already in the race to get their own portion from what seems an illegal appropriation and sales.

Speaking further, the Ogwuluzeme said that in spite of several peace overtures Ubulu-Okiti people have been making by following the legal process, Isah-Ogwashi people have continued to terrorise his community. “They keep on beating our people, using Hunters Special Squad to arrest our people. The Squad usually carry Pump Action and Double Barrel guns to arrest our people in their farms and occasionally chain them to motor bikes until they finished bull-dozing for the day” he explained.

According to him, sometimes the Isah-Ogwashi people and their hatchet men flog our people mercilessly with cain and warn them never to enter their farms again. Most of our farmers have abandoned their farms out of fear. In some places where the cassava is matured, the Isah-Ogwashi people would use bulldozer to uproot the cassava all over the place.

One of the victims of the Isah-Ogwashi attack was identified as Pastor James Ikediashi who was said to have been beaten in his farm for protesting against the bull-dozing of his palm tree, plantain and others. After beating him, he was arrested and taken to Operation Safe Delta squad.

After he has secured his release, few days later he was caught again by the lsah people because he reportedly refused to allow the invaders to continue destroying his crops. He was arrested again and taken to the Raiders squad.

The matter has continued to drag to such an extent that the Delta State Police Command is alleged to have been playing a suspicious role of giving support to the “land grabbers” who are certainly not in the mood to tow the line of peace. In spite of the fact that the matter is in court, there had been no restraint on the part of Isah-Ogwashi people as bulldozers continued to clear the bush.

Corroborating what the Ogwuluzeme told Atlanticnewsonline, the Deputy Chief of Ogbe-Obi quarters, Ubulu Okiti, Chief Patrick Ofuani said when the Okiti youths chased away the Isah-Ogwashi people last year May and seized their bulldozer battery, one of the Isah people was dragged along to Okiti as a confirmation of what the youths had come to report to the elders. This act was what prompted the land invaders to report to the police in Ogwashi-Uku that one of their people had been kidnapped.

According to him, the Okiti indigenes never knew at that time that the invasion and grabbing of the land was not going to be restricted to Ogbease quarters land alone but the entire Okiti community which land is along the Benin-Asaba Expressway.

As the crisis began to take a more serious dimension, one Chief Oboli from Ogwashi-Uku came on behalf of Obi Okonjo of Ogwashi-Uku to settle the land dispute. In the course of that, himself Chief Patrick Ofuani and one other person were invited to witness the settlement between Ogbease quarters and Isah-Ogwashi people.

Following this, some inspections were made as to the actual boundaries between Ogbease quarters and Isah-Ogwashi on one hand and Ogbe-Obi quarters of Ubulu-Okiti and Edo-Ogwashi on another hand. According to Ofuani at that meeting, some level of understanding was reached. This was in 2023.

However late December of same 2023, the Odogwu of Ogwashi-Uku visited Okiti on the same mission Oboli had earlier come for. He reportedly told the people of Ogbease and Ogbe-Obi quarters of Ubulu-Okiti that the Ogwashi-Uku monarch sent him to effect a peaceful solution on the land issue as he (the King) did not have confidence in Chief Oboli’s way of handling the matter.

The land issue became more complicated when the Odogwu introduced other elements that seemed to suggest that the land controversy was beyond the current situation of Isah-Ogwashi people and the Ogbease quarters. Boundaries between Edo-Ogwashi, Ubulu-Okiti, Anigbala and others became an issue which according to him, Odogwu said he had come to strengthen on behalf of Ogwashi-Uku monarch. The Odogwu was said to have suggested adjusting some boundaries but this did not go down well with Okiti who have evidence of some ancient land mark to justify their arguments.

Chief Patrick Ofuani, further corroborated the allegation that sometime this year when a team of about eight Ubulu-Okiti chiefs and others went on inspection of the controversial land, they were ambushed and attacked by more than 15-weapon-bearing men, emphasising that they escaped death by the whiskers.

“They captured us and dealt with us. They injured some of us. It was by God’s grace we survived the attack. The attackers carried away our motor cycle and destroyed another vehicle.”

Following this attack, the Ubulu-Okiti people wrote a petition to the State Government alerting them of the threat from Isah-Ogwashi people. “We similarly wrote to the Commissioner of Police about the criminal angle. Incidentally the day we were invited to come and make statement at the police station, we were asked to deposit N200,000 to the State Criminal Investigation Department. We refused as we told them that we did not have such money.

“So it was at this juncture we discovered that the whole land has been sold and police in Delta State have been bought over with money by the land grabbers. Since then the police authorities in Delta became hostile to us.

“This prompted us to write a petition to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) office in Abuja. So a Deputy Inspector General of Police was detailed to look into the criminal angle. On the other hand, Delta State Governor has minuted our petition to his Special Adviser on Peace Building and Conflict Resolution (Chief Edwin Chukwunweike Uzor), so he invited all of us to his office where we have made our statement. Other parties from Edo-Ogwashi, Ogwashi-Uku, Isah-Ogwashi and others were all present.

All of us including the Special Adviser eventually had a robust
interactive meeting where the Okwabani of Isah-Ogwashi and the representative of the Ogwashi-Uku monarch (alias Mad Major) clearly stated that the boundaries between Ubulu-Okiti and Ogwashi-Uku (Isah-Ogwashi inclusive) were well established. They added that from the directive of the Ogwashi-Uku monarch, anyone from Isah-Ogwashi trespassing on Ubulu-Okiti land was looking for trouble and should be prosecuted.

“Any trespassers are land grabbers and government should fish them out and prosecute no matter how highly placed, ” they posited.

According to Ofuani, at the end of the meeting a resolution coordinated by the Special Adviser was reached. It was clearly stated in writing that Ogwashi-Uku (Isah-Ogwashi inclusive) should no longer encroach on Ubulu-Okiti land in whatever form.

Regrettably, since then Ubulu-Okiti never knew peace again. “In the course of DIG’s investigation from Abuja, we now got to know that the land grabbers are from Utomi family of Isah-Ogwashi and the Okwabani of the town is their brother who incidentally was at the meeting with the Governor’s Special Adviser where the Ogwashi-Uku team stated that the trespassers “are land grabbers.”

When contacted on Friday via phone with respect to the allegation against the Delta State Police Command on the land issue, spokesman of the Command, Bright Edafe, a Superintendent of Police told Atlanticnewsonline that he could not say anything about it but advised that aggrieved parties in the case should take the matter to Court.

Meanwhile, efforts to speak with any of the Utomi family members mentioned in the story to get their own side, were unsuccessful as at press time. None of the contacts Atlanticnewsonline reached out to, could help with their phone numbers. They all declined, saying they did not have the contacts, possibly because they did not want to be mentioned in our story, even after we had assured them of confidentiality.