SAN FRANCISCO, August 29, (THEWILL) – Women of Uvwie Kingdom in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State, in their hundreds, trooped out to the Effurun roundabout axis of the East/West Road as early as 6am on Monday, in protest over an alleged illegal acquisition and sale of over 185.20 hectares of their land by the Nigerian Army.
The protest, which lasted for over three hours, resulted in traffic gridlock on the strategic highway as the women brandished placards with different inscriptions such as, “Our land has been sold by soldiers”, “Give our land back to us”, “We have no land to farm”, “Mr. President come to our rescue”.
They also used the demonstration to urge President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Bill establishing the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, FUPRE, which has been passed by the National Assembly.
Joined by some men, the protesting women chanted songs of disenchantment and called on the Federal Government to prevail on the Army authority to release their land to them.
Spokesperson for the protesters, Mrs. Maria Odjobu, said their land, meant for farming, had been purportedly confiscated by the army to the extent that they are barred by soldiers from fetching firewood from the land and disallowed from gaining access to the pond dug in the land by their forefathers.
“They chased us out of our farms and fish ponds from which we take care of our children. Now we are hungry and we have come out today to tell the soldiers to give our land back to us,” she said.
On his part, President-General of Uvwie General Improvement Union, Chief Austin Ukuwrere, explained that the land in question was the unused piece of land after the completion of the construction and occupation of the 3rd Battalion Barracks, Effurun in 1979 by the army.
According to him: “The representatives of Uvwie families seeing that not all the land purportedly acquired were actually developed and occupied, requested that they be released to them for farming, their main occupation.
“Rather than release the unused portions, the various commanding officers of the barracks, in connivance with some serving and retired army generals have been converting the illegally acquired acres of lands into private use by leasing, assigning or selling them outright to private individuals and organisations through the instrumentality of the Nigerian Army Properties Limited.”
Also speaking, former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Delta state, Chief Victor Otomievwo said: “it is unfortunate that a government in Nigeria will steal a land from a people, turn it into a commercial venture and at the same time harass the same people with the intention of occupying land not included in the 1974 Gazette.”
Addressing the protesters who also visited his palace and the Uvwie Local Government Council secretariat, the Ovie of the kingdom, HRM Emmanuel Sideso Abe I, said the Army had illegally acquired more than what was originally stated in what was given to them by the Uwvie people.
He said: “When I ascended to the throne, we made several attempts to get back some of the unoccupied areas by the Army. We generously gave the Army over 2000 hectares in 1974 with the aim of establishing the Nigeria Defence Academy, but unfortunately, the Defense Academy was moved to Kaduna.
“We then asked that the unoccupied part of the land be returned since the Defense Academy was no more here. We approached them but there was no response, rather my subjects have been deprived of even living in the place. Three years ago, they marked the villages to be demolished which was not part of the land given to them. They have illegally extended the land without our knowledge.”
