Mbulu-Owo and Owo autonomous communities in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State have urged the Nigerian Army to comply with a court order directing it to withdraw its personnel and vacate a disputed land in the area.
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The contested land borders several communities, including Akpoga-Nike, Nkwubor Nike, and Onuogba Nike in Enugu East Local Government Area; Amechi Idodo, Oruku, and Ubahu in Nkanu East; as well as Umuhuaji, Nkalagu, and Ama-Azu in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
Justice C.O. Ajah of the Enugu State High Court had, on May 20 this year, issued an order restraining the Nigerian Army, the Defence authorities, and the Enugu State Government from entering the disputed land pending the resolution of the ongoing legal case.
He had adjourned the substantive suit for pretrial conference to September 29, this year.
Despite the order, the Governor Peter Mbah’s kinsmen, at the weekend, alleged that officials of the Nigerian Army had started “patrolling and surveying the disputed area”.
Video has gone viral in the social media, showing armed soldiers patrolling the area.
The communities in a statement by their Secretary, Ability Chukwuemeka Mbah, urged the Military to obey the court order in the interest of peace.
He stated that the presence of the army on the disputed area was now creating fear and apprehension in the people of the area.
It was gathered that the land had been in dispute between the Nigeria Army and the communities since 2016.
The state government which intervened at some point with a joint inspection had discovered that “no beacons that correspond with the ones in the survey plans submitted by the Nigerian Army were found”, stressing that it was hard to prove the land belonged to the army
The Nigeria Army in its response to the investigative committee submitted that the land was acquired around 1970, stressing that it had been encroached on by unidentified persons who were setting up beacons on it.
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