By Chinelo Ogbodo (Enugu State Correspondent)
An Oil worker (Name of Organization Withheld), Engr. Nnaemeka Mmadu and some persons in his community in Idi-Opi, Nsukka, in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu North, are currently locked in a face-off over allegations and counter allegations of land grabbing in a village called Umugadu.
Some members of the community allegedly led by Barrister Chukwudi Jerry Nnamani, an Nnewi based lawyer and Dr Clement Ugwuanyi, said to be a human rights activist, among other persons, have accused Engr. Nnaemeka Mmadu allegedly in connivance with a widow, Mrs Perpetua Ugwu, of engaging in grabbing lands belonging to the community.
Not only that, they accused Mmadu of intimidation in Umugadu village, Ezama Idi Opi, a bordering village to his own, Umuhu village, Nsukka, in Enugu State.
In a statement at Opi Nsukka on Tuesday, August 29, 2023, Mmadu's accusers in Umugadu community and Ezama, said they were shocked by the "change of attitude they we noticed in Mr. Mmadu since he began to work in an oil company and to make money.
"He has been intimidating and hectoring the villagers, in most cases, trying to take their land, instigating and fueling disputes, disregarding the resolutions of elders and hiring armed thugs and members of law enforcement agencies to harass and terrorize his many victims.
“We do not know what to do again. He will always tell you that you can do nothing and that he has enough money to deal with you. All I know is that we are not going to run away from this village for anybody. He is not the first to make money and he won’t be the last,” one of the villagers said anonymously.
Mmadu's accusers also said in the statement made available to NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Newspaper Correspondent, that the latest of such acts, was his attempts to take a piece of communal land which belongs to the people of Umugadu, one of the three villages in Umuhu-nato, Idi Opi, Nsukka in Enugu North Senatorial Zone.
They claimed that in a pending law suit in respect of the matter, now before the Nsukka High Court in the Enugu Judicial Division, with the suit number: N/574/2023, and filed by six plaintiffs on behalf of Umugadu village, namely: One Okenyi Amaechi, Ugwuanyi Francis, Dr. Ugwuanyi Clement, Barr. Emeka Nnamani, Joel Eze and Barr. Jeremiah Chukwudi Nnamani, with of course Nnaemeka Mmadu and one Mrs. Perpetua Ugwu named as defendants, Mmadu was alleged to have instigated Mrs Perpetua Ugwu to allegedly sell a communal land to him knowing full well that the said land belongs to the people of Umugadu, Ezama, Idi Opi, and not Perpetua, the purported vendor.
One of Nnaemeka Mmadu's accuser, Barrister Chukwudi Nnamani, an Nnewi-based legal practitioner who is named as a plaintiff in the suit now before Nsukka High Court, said: “It is not the case of buying land which has issues because you did not know all the facts. Though, he is not a member of this village, he knew everything about the land. The woman would not have attempted what she did, that is assuming she actually did it, if he (Mmadu) did not instigate her".
The land being disputed, Barrister Nnamani claimed, is "part of a larger portion of Ukwala-Ugwu of Umugadu, which shares common boundary in the west with another piece of land given to one Barrister Onyeke by the ancestors of the plaintiffs in 1973. The ancestors of the plaintiffs, for being public-spirited, conceded the portion to all the three Umuhunato villages (Umuhu, Umuamushi and Umugadu) in 1974; to be given to Barrister Onyeke, popularly known as Lawyer Onyeke, in exchange for his legal services rendered to a native of Umuhu who ran into trouble with the law around 1974.
Nnamani stated that 'Lawyer Onyeke' is the first person to qualify as a lawyer in Opi, a community in Nsukka Local government area. "When he began to practice law, the villagers who could not afford his professional fees often offered him gifts of land in exchange for his services.
"That was the case with the land the ancestors of the plaintiffs conceded to Umuhunato to be used as payment for his services. The transactions, if it should be so called, was evidenced by a legal instrument executed between Lawyer Onyeke and the elders of Umugadu who owned the land before the incident of 1974.
NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Newspaper Correspondent was however told that "as time went on, there arose a concern that the portion of land given to Lawyer Onyeke by Umuhunato was too large. The youth of Umuhunato approached Onyeke over the land. Out of rare magnanimity, Onyeke agreed to give back a part of the land to Umuhunato in 1999".
They were said to have executed another agreement to serve as evidence for the latter transaction. The statement said that anger over the portion of land allegedly retained by lawyer Onyeke, allegedly made Nnaemeka Madu to "invade another of the plaintiffs’ land, now a subject of fierce dispute and litigation".
On the issue of the disputed land, the accusers of Engr Nnaemeka Mmadu, however, claimed in their media statement on behalf of the Umugadu community, that the "elders of Umugadu allegedly gave the disputed land to one Augustine Ugwu, said to be the late husband to Mrs Perpetua Ugwu, the woman named as second defendant in the suit, in accordance with their ancient customs and tradition. The land was allegedly given to Augustine Ugwu essentially for farming purposes.
"His own side of the bargain was to pay tribute to the people of Umugadu every year as he continued to farm on the land. Late Augustine Ugwu fulfilled the customary rites and continued to pay tribute even though he defaulted a couple of times. That was how the matter was for a long period of time. Beginning with Chief Ebonyi Nnam Alu, all the elders who were part of the discussion are now allegedly dead.
"However, their descendants were said to have continued to uphold the relationship and the oral lease agreement with Augustine Ugwu, even repeatedly writing him whenever he defaulted in paying up his obligatory tribute. Even after Augustine Ugwu of blessed memory appointed one Ogidi Vincent to administer his interest in the land, this condition allegedly never stopped".
Barrister Chukwudi Jerry Nnamani who apparently is the leader of the group accusing Mmadu of land grabbing in the Umugadu community, said, “I think this problem started after I declined to join Nnaemeka Mmadu to make trouble with lawyer Onyeke and his family”.
Barrister Nnamani also claimed that Mmadu, a principal defendant in the suit filed by the accusing team, had allegedly called him (Nnamani), telling him that there is no reason why their family should continue to allow Lawyer Onyeke to hold the portion of land their ancestors gave him. His reason was that the lawyer is now very old and cannot fight them, especially as he is from another part of the community.
Mmadu was so allegedly hell-bent on fighting to retake the said land allegedly given to Onyeke, which unconfirmed report by NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Newspaper, revealed that he (Mmadu) offered Nnamani various mouthwatering inducements to allegedly endorse the idea and join him.
But Nnamani was said to have maintained his ground, telling Mmadu that he "cannot disregard and dishonor a pact or covenant entered into by his long-dead ancestors". Mmadu, it was alleged, was still "determined to have his way out of alleged pride and hunger for land acquisition".
He was alleged to have sworn that since Nnamani declined to join him in fighting Lawyer Onyeke over the land given to him, he would invade and take other land belonging to the Umuagdu people. Nnamani, claimed that he did not, at that time, think that Mmadu was going to make good his alleged threat.
Indeed, there are three villages in Umuhunato, Ezama, Idi Opi where, as it was noted earlier, all the parties, both the plaintiffs and the defendants hail from. These villages are Umuhu, Umugadu and Umuamushi. Nevertheless, they are said to own lands differently. It therefore happens by accident of history, that Umugadu, the village of the plaintiffs, is the smallest in population but allegedly enjoys ownership of the land at the choicest location.
The statement said this situation is said to have fueled envy and resentment in some members of the community. "The situation has however been like that since nobody who is alive nine hundred years ago can remember. Mmadu who hails from Umuhu is no longer happy with the advantage Umugadu have over the land. He began to mobilize young people from his own Umuhu with an aim to destabilize the age-old status quo. He allegedly runs a WhatsApp platform for this purpose.
"In trying to take the land in dispute, Mmadu first tried peaceful approaches. Instigating Perpetua Ugwu, wife of late Augustine Ugwu, who held the land in customary lease for farming purposes. The widow approached the principal owners of the land in Umugadu and offered to buy it outrightly off the village. Nnaemeka Mmadu himself had also offered to buy the land, and again approached the owners in Umugadu and even approached important people in Idi Opi. Despite several meetings, they failed to reach any meaningful or positive agreement".
One of the plaintiffs said: “We were surprised when the land was surveyed and beacons planted around it. We dismantled the beacons and disclaimed the activities in a newspaper publication. The next thing we saw was that Mr Nnaemeka Mmadu entered the land and began to cut down economic trees and to heap sand and stone”.
Mmadu, his accusers alleged, began to "intimidate" the plaintiffs. They said in the statement that "Sometime on the 17th of August, 2023, Mmadu made attempt to arrest us. He invaded our homes at ungodly hours with a collection of thugs and military boys. In a series of intimidatory and unlawful activities, one Raymond Chinonso Eze, an army recruit and a classmate of Mmadu made himself a willingness tool in the alleged intimidation exercise.
"He (Mmadu) ensured the militarization of the land in dispute, preventing any service of court process or entrance by the plaintiffs while the land is hurriedly being developed. Our people in the villages are of the view that it is unlawful for an officer of the Nigerian Army to get himself entangled in a civil dispute".
But Engr Nnaemeka Mmadu in a telephone interview with NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Newspaper on Thursday, August 31, 2023, from his base, carefully dismantled these maze of allegations of land grabbing, intimidation of persons and underhand practices against him.
Taking the allegations point after point, and starting with the accusations of land grabbing against him, Mmadu declared that all the claims by his accusers were dubiously fabricated falsehood and viciously orchestrated campaign of calumny to tarnish him and paint him in very bad light before his employers and all reasonable men. He declared that they are just frustrated "failures in their life endeavors" whose only means of livelihood in the community was to grab lands and extort money from genuine land buyers.
"Number one, everything they are saying is fabricated lies. They (people accusing him of land grabbing) are the real land grabbers. They are a bunch of hungry people who think that their only means of making money was to look for big men (wealthy men) that they would frame up and get money from. This is their main business in our community. They are in the business of land grabbing; grabbing the land of innocent citizens of the community.
"These people currently have more than ten (10) cases in court pertaining to the same parcel of land within the same location in the community which is Agu-umuhu. The cases are mostly in Nsukka High Court. Currently, there's one case they lost at the Nsukka High Court. They also lost at the Appeal Court and now they are giving signal that they are going to the Supreme Court. There's one case they have with the market and the local government (Udenu Local Government) on this same Agu-umuhu land.
"Then, there's one case they have with a family called the Atama family on this same Agu-umuhu land. And there's also one case they have with one Christopher on this same land. As a matter of fact, l don't want to be mentioning names of people without their permission in a media interview like this or giving out their contacts. But basically these people have upto ten cases currently on-going in court on this same land with different people. We need to get this story correctly".
Engr Nnaemeka Mmadu stated that there are three hamlets in Umuhunato community in Idi-Opi Nsukka, Enugu state. "These people refused to explain these things correctly to people. Umuhunato is comprised of three different hamlets: Umuhu, Umuamushi and Umugadu. Ancestrally, Umuhu is the eldest of the three hamlets. I am from Umuhu, while they are from Umugadu. These three hamlets have the same ancestral father. We have the same ancestor which is how we inherited that common land called Agu-Umuhu land.
"The particular location in question in that Agu-Umuhu is called Ugwu-ala-ugwurogo, because there is a hill that is in that location called Ugwurogo. And it is not called Ugwurogo Umugadu, it is called Ugwurogo-Idi. Now, the road connecting this land is Oho-odo road. And that road is today named by the government as Chief Patrick Mmadu Road, that's my late father".
Mmadu clarified that the land his accusers are talking about that made them to tag me a land grabber was the land he bought from somebody who bought from someone that their grandfather (Chief Ebonyi Nnam-Alu) sold to. "Then the second portion of land in the same location was owned by an Umuhu man, one late Augustine Ugwu, whose wife they are now referring to as Mrs Perpetua Ugwu.
"Late Augustine Ugwu was from Umuhu where l come from. The land belonged to Umuhunato community. I am from Umuhu hamlet, a part of Umuhunato. All of us are Umuhunato. I bought this land and another. They are two pieces of land that l bought from Perpetua Ugwu and her son. This Umugadu people accusing me of land grabbing came and started saying that they had leased it to Perpetua, and that Perpetua is not the rightful owner.
"As a son of the soil and as the youth president of the Umuhu community, Perpetua had explained to me that the land was never on lease; that it was a land that they owned by inheritance considering that the land is in Umuhunato which is known as Agu-Umuhu. That is what the land is known. Then, Perpetua in question, owned that land by inheritance and l bought it from them. They (Perpetua Ugwu's family) were not paying any land rent to Umugadu people as they had claimed. They are not supposed to pay rent to Umugadu. You cannot be paying somebody rent for something you are a part of its ownership.
" The one l bought from an outsider was more like buying back the land because l needed to use it for a building project in my own community. My father's house is two poles away from this land in question. The location of this land is Agu-Umuhu. However, because these guys are notorious land grabbers. They are the real land grabbers!
"Their grandfather had sold the first portion of the land to somebody in another part of our community in 1973 and the deed of assignment on the land was executed in 1985. The person had sold to another person in 2003. And these guys are now coming to claim that they have re-sold the land again to their in-law in 2016 or 2018 or thereabout.
"l have the documents to show the root title with which their grandfather sold it, and the one l bought with. So, these people disclaimed that they were not in the know that their father had sold the land and that it was a mistake. They are now insisting that l must re-buy the land or compensate their in-law who they had sold the land to. And l have said that l cannot re-buy or compensate anybody.
"If you have collected money from your in-law, then you need to go and refund the money or you look for another land for him. So, that is for the first part of the land. The second part of the land from Perpetua, honestly l don't know what their claim is. I hear them saying something like oral lease. Is there anything like oral lease of land? They should be able to provide tangible evidences that they leased this land. Nobody was paying them land rent.
"For more than 40 years that they (Perpetua and family) owned that land, no encumbrances until they sold it to me. What can be clearly understood from this whole thing is that these very persons instigating this matter are the one who claim he is a lawyer, Barrister Chukwudi Nnamani, and another person, one Clement Ugwuanyi, who describes himself as "Dr" that never went beyond secondary school, but he's parading himself as "Dr", claiming that he is a human rights activist.
"In actual fact, they are hungry individuals who are basically looking for a way to extort innocent land buyers. Like l said earlier, these guys are just into land grabbing business and l have all the evidences".
Explaining that the entire issue of squabbles over allegations of land grabbing and intimidation is being currently investigated by the various levels of the police authorities in Nigeria, Mmadu revealed that, "They have called the police in who came and arrested my workers working on the land. When we got to the police, the police Area Commander at Udenu Local Government Area attended to us. They wrote to the police that l was pursuing them with guns.
"The Area Commander of Udenu Local Government Area asked them for evidences, for witnesses and all that. He then dismissed the case as a false allegation and concluded that this is a land matter and that police does not get involved in land matters. He also advised them that having provided no evidence that they own the land, the Area Commander asked them to go to court and prove their case. Instead of doing that, they went to the Police Zonal Command, Zone 13 in Ukpo, Anambra state, to submit the same petition.
"The police in Zone 13 is currently investigating this case. However, to avoid being subjudice, this case is currently in court. I have taken it further. I have written a petition to the Commissioner of Police in Enugu state for the protection of my life because they are threatening to kill me. And for the protection of my properties. I have also written to the Inspector General of Police for the same purpose because these guys are sending people to attack my workers on that land every night and everyday.
"So, both the IG of police, the Enugu state Commissioner of Police and Zone 13 Ukpo, Anambra state are equally looking into it. The Zone 13 is looking at their petitions. We have gone for interviews. It's an ongoing case. Having done this, l have also taken the advice of the Area Commander by going to court to show that l truly own the land. If I'm a land grabber, l won't go to court. I will use brute force and have my way. You grab land by force. You won't think of going to court. I have actually gone to court. They should meet me there. I have my evidences".
Engr Mmadu however stated that the traditional ruler in their community is presently making spirited efforts to resolve the land impasse between him and his accusers. "The most interesting part of the story is that the three villages that own the land have now come out two days ago (Monday ,August 28, 2023) to state that the land belonged to three of us, that is, the three community brothers of Umuhu, Umuamushi and Umugadu that make up Umuhunato.
"Currently, they've reported it to the Igwe (traditional ruler) of the community who is looking into that claim. Number one. The land does not belong to them. They are land grabbers who are looking for innocent people to extort. This is their business in that community. If they cannot extort you, they will blackmail you. What they are doing right now is blackmailing. The case is already in court. Police at the various level is looking into it. Your news medium (Nigerian NewsLeader Newspaper) can even interview the Area Commander of Udenu Local Government Area to obtain your facts and confirm my own account of the story to you.
"They have been going round media organizations to get them to publish falsehood about me. But my lawyers are responding to whatever defamatory, libelous and cyber stalking implications of such one sided publication. It is very unprofessional. They even went as far as saying that my father was killed by a deity! Can you imagine that? Your news medium (Nigerian NewsLeader Newspaper) and the Vanguard Newspaper are the only news mediums so far that have contacted me to hear my own side of the story before going to press. That is professionalism, if you ask me.
"So, they would have to court and prove their claims. My pictures are being circulated here and there without my permission. Of course, these things are targeted at ensuring that they bring me to disrepute in the eye of my organization and possibly get me relieved of my job. I am a philanthropist, they said so. I don't know about that. Mine is that l am one of the highest contributor in the Catholic Church in my Community, Idi-Opi, Nsukka. In terms of the church build there, l am basically like the man in charge of the project. I am an Engineer, though not a civil Engineer but based on my experience.
"I am a sales manager for my organization for West and Central Africa. I am a community leader. In fact, the electrification that went to my community was done by me. l provide for my community people. Every Christmas, l share rice to them including these guy's mother. During the Covid-19, l shared money to all of them. I often grade roads for them during dry season. Even the borehole in my community, l was the one that rehabilitated it with the support of other persons.
"Just last month, a tanker truck fell at the Ahor market area of Opi-9th Mile Corner Road and which brought down the electric installation, l and one other person singlehandedly restored that electricity for the community. So, what l do for the community is immeasurable and so humongous that if it is just one plot of land in question, l should be able to afford it. I have no reason to start grabbing land. What you see here is envy and jealousy and pull-him-down syndrome. But they have failed and they will continue to fail!
Mmadu also shed a little more light on the involvement of an old lawyer in the community named Barrister Onyeke and the role he allegedly played on the land grabbing story. He told NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER that "Barrister Onyeke is a old lawyer from Opi Nsukka. He took my community (Umuhunato) land. This land is sharing the same boundary with the one l bought.
"And that particular land, my father, because of the excesses of the prison wardens that were brought to the land by Onyeke, led to my father asking questions why the land was given to him in the first place. We realized that the land was given to him for no reason. Our fathers who leased the land to him said they did so just for farming. They said, as customary, he was supposed to kill a goat and cook for them which at a point he never did.
"My people said the land was too much and there was no good reason for which the land was given to him. The reason he is presenting is false. Investigation now showed that the reason he gave in the forged lease agreement was false. The lease agreement itself was also false. While two persons have agreed to give him the land, he wrote eight persons and those people denied getting involved.
"He even used a dead man's name to write the agreement. And then he stated that the land was leased to him for 9,999 years. So my father and the Umuhunato community said no he has to return the land. The case started until such a time when he went and connived with some members of the community. My uncle was even killed in the process and some members of the community he was able to buy to his side, and whom he connived with went and forged another deed of assignment which was also forged because some people who are still living today clearly signed.
"So the question now is: how could you sign for almost eight persons, most of whom were people living in the village? Are you signing for the person because they travelled to kafanchan or because they can't sign? If they can't sign, can't they tumb print? We realized that those documents were forged.
"My father was in court with him (Lawyer Onyeke) at about that time that the judge asked them to go for peaceful resolution but he didn't come to my father to comply with judge's directive, instead he started to forge a deed assignment, saying that he is converting the leasehold into freehold in 1999, and that he is returning part of the land. My father went for an Appeal in Court and of course, this case is still a court matter.
Engr Nnaemeka Madu however explained the circumstances in which a soldier accused of molesting his accusers was linked to the land grabbing brouhaha. "The soldier they mentioned was my classmate who may have visited my site. Thank God they confirmed that the soldier was my classmate and from the same community with me. He is a friend from Opi. All of us are from Opi, Nsukka. The soldier came to see my site. He has the right to visit his friend in his site. I did not arrange any soldier to molest anybody. I am not a military man. I don't have that power and neither do l have power to allocate soldiers. I didn't bring any soldier to intimidate anybody.
"They (his accusers) are the ones who were sending thugs to my site everyday and night to beat up my workers and destroy things. On Tuesday night (this week), they sent thugs there who broke the car windscreen of one of my workers. Same Tuesday, in the morning, they went with a group of thugs in two vehicles to attack the place. What l am telling you now, l have evidences for it because l'm not around the community, but my workers were sending me details of everything going on there. I am trying to investigate those who they are using to do this.
"On Monday night too (this week, August 28, 2023) they brought thugs who came in about four motorcycles and attempted to attack my boys, my workers who live in the boys quarter that l built on that land. The boys heard their noise and ran away. The attackers even left behind their hammers with which they came to destroy things.
"So, the other night, they came again and used their hammer to destroy part of the fence and ran away. They are the ones going about with thugs coming to look for me to kill. But let's be clear, these people are my home brothers but they are failures in their respective life endeavors and they have resorted to extortion, blackmailing, character assassination and looking for who to obtain money from through blackmail.
"This blackmail will never work because l am a clean person. I work for an international organization. You know what it means to work for international organization and l have risen in position there. NNL.