The ongoing battle between land grabbers in Imo State and the Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Land Recovering, headed by Mr Paschal Nwakamma, has taken a new dimension, as land grabbers in the state have devised new methods to emerge victorious in the battle and remain in business.
South-East PUNCH gathered that Nwakamma was hell-bent on seeing that all government landed properties illegally taken over by land grabbers are recovered, while the land grabbers are not ready to give up.
However, South-East PUNCH gathered that the land grabbers were no longer comfortable because of their inability to make headway, and following the development, they were said to have begun strategizing on how to survive the onslaught and outwit the state government.
South-East PUNCH, which has been following and covering the land recovery drive of the Hope Uzodimna administration, discovered that the land grabbers launched a blackmail attack on Nwakamma, accusing him of infractions, including corrupt practices, to discredit him before his boss, Governor Uzodimma and the general public.
Apart from calling for his sack, the attack was also aimed at frustrating the young SA from carrying out his legitimate mandate, South-East PUNCH gathered.
But realizing the futility of their strategy, the land grabbers have now changed tactics. To make it look real, on the premise that their strategize of blackmail did not work, they involved some of the villagers by brainwashing them to lay claims to government land through white paper reports, to leverage on that and get those landed properties shared.
One of the cases that is presently causing trouble in a community in Owerri West Local Government Area, where a group of people who bought into the idea of a particular land they don’t have ownership, of are being resisted by the original owners of the land, who government actually did negotiation with for its acquisition years back, but are now calling on Uzodimma to come to their rescue.
Meanwhile, when contacted over the phone for his comments, Nwakamma said, “The leader of land grabbing in Imo State is a monster, which has grown wild but we are doing our best to ensure that we put a stop to it. That is why you see all this blackmails against my person, but that would not deter me from carrying out the mandate given to me by the governor for the good of Ndi Imo.
“Of course, you know that it is not easy for these people, who have been feeding fat from illegally taking possession of government landed property over the years to just let go that easy. But by the grace of God, we shall overcome. But I say this, we will not take it lightly with anyone who wants to mess up as far as it concerns land grabbing in the state. This medium is prepared to give up-to-date reports on the land recovery issue in the state and will not hesitate to mention names of those proved to be involved in land grabbing as our searchlight is on.”
Source | Punchng
