Land dispute: Imo community accuses state govt of violating court order

The Umuejechi Nekede community in Owerri West LGA of Imo State is accusing the State Government of disrespecting a court judgement restraining it from tampering with the parcel of land which initially harboured the former Agricultural Development Corporation, ADC.

Organisations located in the land, which the community said belongs to it by virtue of a High Court judgement include the former Nekede Zoo, the Songhai Farms Area, the Staff Quarters of the defunct ADC and the Imo Forestry.

A document that was issued to journalists through the community’s lawyer, U.B.Okoro Obinna, stated that judgement was delivered in favour of the community against the State Government in a suit numbered HOW/603/2018, in a case between DR. ETOFOLAM OSUJI and three others representing the Community against the GOVERNOR OF IMO STATE and two others.

According to the lawyer, the State Government filed an appeal challenging the judgement which is still pending at the Supreme Court.

He noted that in spite of the clear orders of the court restraining the government and its privies from further trespass on the land, it still went ahead and concluded plans to build a hotel on the land, in spite of the pending appeal at the Supreme Court.

“We, therefore, warn the general public that anybody dealing with the land or any part of it is in contempt of the Orders of Court and taking a calculated risk; and whatever investment made on any part of the land inures to our clients, the Umuejechi Nekede Community, in the event the matter is decided in their favour,” the document stated.

The community maintained that the state government could have waited and allow the court to exhaust the litigation process before taking further action.