OKEZE FAMILY IN IBUSA PROTEST IRREVOCABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY ISSUED TO BARR. FRED AJUDUA OVER THEIR LAND, DEMANDS JUSTICE
THE Okeze family, Umu-Isoh Quarters, Ezeagwu Village in Ibusa, Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State have staged a peaceful protest against the forceful takeover of their family land by some persons who did not enter into any form of transaction with the community. They condemned the “Irrevocable Power of Attorney” issued to Barr. Fred Ajudua by the Diokpa of Ezeagwu Village, Ibusa, Obi Oweleke, saying that Obi Oweleke has no powers over Okeze family land.
The Okeze family challenged Barr. Fred Ajudua to show evidence that he had any dealing with bonafide members of Okeze family. The family members while venting their anger, saying they were fast running out of patience over the antics of Barr. Fred Ajudua, therefore urged him to stop circulating a video online where he was purportedly given a laughable irrevocable power of attorney by persons not known to Okeze family. It was stated that although Okeze family is part of Umu-Isoh Quarters in Umu Ezeagwu Village, Ibusa, Obi Oweleke has his own family land and that being Diokpa of Ezeagwu does not give him any powers to trade off Okeze family land to outsiders, including Barr. Fred Ajudua who is from Ogboli Quarters in Ibusa. It was also stated that Obi Oweleke is working hand in gloves with Fidelis Nwanze to sell off Okeze family land in Ibusa. Chairman of Okeze family land committee, Mr. Chizea Udegbunam described how he and other law-abiding members of Okeze family were serially abused, attacked, molested and humiliated on their land, while a member of Okeze family whose legs were broken by Ajudua’s thugs is still being hospitalized, saying the Local Govt. Chairman who is from Ibusa, Hon. Innocent Esenwezie is aware of the dastardly incident. The family said Ajudua has become a terror in Ibusa and should be stopped before he drags the peaceful community of Ibusa into war.
He said Ajudua tried to cajole him and other discerning members of Okeze family into agreeing to the irrevocable power of attorney but they were wiser than his plot, thus he resorted to test the greed of Obi Oweleke and Fidelis Nwanze who gave him the Okeze family land that does not belong to either Oweleke or Nwanze. The women of Okeze family described how their crops, including cassava, maize, yams, cocoyam and vegetables were destroyed by Ajudua and his cohorts who told them never to step foot on their ancestral lands. They said land marks and perimeter fencing is ongoing in the area that used to be their farms and source of livelihoods.
They therefore sent an SOS to Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. (Elder) Sheriff Oborevwori on account of their present predicament in the hands of former 419 kingpin, Chief Fred Ajudua whose wife is currently the Delta State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Social and Community Development, saying that ironically, her husband, Fred Ajudua is clearly working against the development of Ibusa Community through his land grabbing and intimidation of kinsmen in his bid to amass wealth through land sales as he has failed in his former ‘career’ which was Advance Fee Fraud or 419.
They said an emphatic NO to the so-called irrevocable power of attorney issued to Ajudua over their ancestral land, saying that Obi Oweleke and Fidelis Nwanze have their own families in Ezeagwu, so they acted in gross illegality and their action a sacrilege in Ibusa tradition and customs, as Okeze family land in Ibusa is not jointly owned with other families in Ezeagwu Village, while urging Obi Oweleke and Fidelis Nwanze to stop collecting peanuts from Fred Ajudua as the Okeze family lands cannot be taken away by anyone, no matter how highly placed in collusion with a diokpa and his cohorts.
The protest took the Oshimili North Local Government Chairman, Hon. Innocent Esenwezie, by surprise as he arrived to attend the Public Hearing on the Executive Bill to provide for a bye law on Public/Private Properties Protection 2023, which took place at Oshimili North Local Government Area Liaison Office, Ibusa. The council boss directed developers to stop work on the land until further notice, promising to treat the matter with dispatch. “We just returned from a meeting with the Governor and our land management was part of the deliberations, so the searchlight of the state is already beamed on issues such as the one you have brought forward”. “If you are here so we can help you retake your land, then manage your land, not to sell them off, be rest assured that whatever decisions reached after investigation, government will implement it. Justice will find its way to your community”, he assured the protesters amidst a rousing applause.
Esenwezie while meeting with the protesters at the Conference Hall of the Liaison Office, in the presence of the Ibusa Truth, Peace and Reconciliation Committee set up by the council in conjunction with Ibusa Community, promised that justice will be done at the end of the day. The protesters had marched into the venue carrying placards with different inscriptions such as: “Okeze family members still need their lands for farming, Our land is our heritage, Stop destroying our farm produce”, while they said ‘No to the irrevocable Power of Attorney issued on our land’.
Conveying their predicament to the council chairman, a spokesperson for the Okeze family, Chizea Udegbunam who is Chairman of the land committee, lamented that their family land was given away to be managed by persons who are alien to Okeze family under an irrevocable power of attorney granted to the said beneficiaries. He said that although they belong to the larger Ezeagwu family in Ibusa, the said land belongs to Okeze family alone and only they could decide what happens to their land. “The land was never available for sale because this is where we earn our livelihoods through farming and other agricultural activities. Besides, we do not jointly own the land with other families in Ezeagwu, so we were shocked to hear that an irrevocable power of attorney was issued on our behalf. We are descendants of Okeze in Umu-Isoh Quarters of Umu Ezeagwu Village in Ibusa, but the said land is that of Okeze family.”
Udegbunam appealed to the LG boss to use his position as Chief Security Officer of the local government area to bring justice to the community, saying that many were maimed, crops destroyed, while women no longer go to their farms. Esenwezie said all parties would be summoned in a bid to resolve the issue, assuring the protesters that “if your land has been wrongfully taken, we will retrieve it and give it back to you.”
