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| Governor Peter Obi Of Anambra State |
Ref: SW/INTERSOCIETY/001/12/2013/ANSG/AWK/NG
His Excellency
Mr. Peter Obi, Governor
of Anambra State,
Government House, Awka
Anambra State
Sir,
A
PETITION AGAINST COMMISSIONER FOR LANDS & URBAN DEVELOPMENT (BARR. OKOLI
AKIRIKA) OF ANAMBRA STATE AND SOME MEMBERS OF HIS STAFF INCLUDING MS. OBY INOMA
AND MR. ANETO C. CHUBA (DEPUTY DIRECTOR, URBAN DEVELOPMENT BOARD) OVER
UNETHICAL CONDUCTS
The SOCIETY
WATCH- a Membership Project of International Society for Civil Liberties and
Rule of Law writes your public office on the above subject
matter.
Our letters to the Inspector General of Police and the Hon.
Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, Anambra State, both dated 24th December,
2013, copies of which are attached here as ANNEXURES 1&2, serve
as the underpinning information in this letter to Your Excellency.
Following the urgency of the issues contained in the letters and
the need to get that of the Commissioner delivered to him before the close of
work on that same day, the leadership ofSOCIETY WATCH, led by Comrade
Justus Uche Ijeoma, went to the office of the Commissioner to personally
deliver the letter to him. Unfortunately however, all the efforts put in by us
to ensure that actions are expedited on the matter were halted, even frustrated
by a most unethical policy put in place by the Commissioner in the Ministry.
When we got to the office of the Commissioner, to our utmost
consternation, we were told by his secretaries that we should pay the sum of
seven thousand naira (#7,000.00) before we could deliver the letter. We tried
to explain to them that ours was neither an application for job nor an
application for allocation of land, but just a letter meant for his urgent
attention, yet our explanations and entreaties fell on deaf ears.
We were bluntly told that what they have told us is a policy and
strict directive from the Hon. Commissioner. This strange policy, of course,
did not go down well with our team; we therefore, requested to see the
Commissioner in person to ascertain the veracity of the secretaries’ claim and
possibly explain things to him. Our request was rudely and roundly turned down
as we waited for more than an hour without being allowed access to the Commissioner,
even when those who came after us were ushered in to his office. At a point, a
journalist friend who writes/reports for one of the National dailies in Awka,
went into the Commissioner’s office to plead on our behalf.
Shortly after, the journalist emerged from the Commissioner’s
office to inform us that the Commissioner has asked that the letter be
collected. We promptly informed one of the secretaries and she collected the
letter and told us to wait for her to go and confirm from the Commissioner.
Before she came out from his office, the journalist friend had left and she
told us that the Commissioner insists that we must pay N7, 000.00 before
dropping the letter.
This, to say the least, was very frustrating, and we have to call
the Board Chairman of our Organization, Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi on
phone and informed him of the difficulty we were facing at the
Ministry. He called the Commissioner on phone, but the Commissioner could
barely wait for him to state the reason for the call when he told him “my
people are there to attend to them” and then cut the phone.
For the benefit of doubt, our senior comrade sent him a text
message, explaining the situation but the text message did not get any
response. Without any headway in sight, we left the Commissioner’s office
without delivering the letter since we did not have such money to pay for the
purpose of delivering a letter to the Commissioner on matters bordering on
life, death and demolition of a dwelling house. We left the office and came to
Your Excellency’s Office and delivered your copy since the letter was copied to
you and then came back to Onitsha to send the Commissioner’s copy
through courier service. This is in “defiance” warnings by the secretaries that
even if we decide to send the letter through courier service that once the
letter gets to them that we will be called on phone to come and pay otherwise
the letter will not be received and registered. What a shocking policy!
On the part of Ms. Oby Inoma, we have it on good authority that
she is of the same family with one Amaechi Inoma, leader of the thugs that
demolished the dwelling house of Pastor Sylvester Agu. She is allegedly the
person the traducers of the Pastor have in the Ministry who provides them with
the insider-information with which they try to, and indeed subvert due process
in matters pertaining to land deals. Our independent investigation indicates
that they have done several of such shoddy deals in the past. She allegedly has
a high-wired connection with “big wig” land speculators and also assists them
with “insider technical information” on how to snatch lands from the less
endowed people who process land documents in the Ministry of Lands & Urban
Development.
She is alleged to have started making some surreptitious and
frantic moves to stall the Pastor’s process of getting approval (certificate of
occupancy) so as to pave way for her land speculator-paymasters and their
allies despite the fact that the said Pastor’s approval has been previously
signed by the former Commissioner, Hon. Peter Afuba and is currently awaiting
Your Excellency’s assent. This was inadvertently confirmed by Mr. Aneto
Christian Chuba when he, in the cause of our discussion with him on the 23rd December,
2013, said that “somebody may think that he is processing papers in the
Ministry without knowing that an insider in the Ministry may have given another
person information and equally assist the latter to “overtake” and thus deny
the former whatever land he makes application for its approval”. It
was indeed an eye-opening. If this kind of thing goes on in the Ministry,
though we believe it may not, then something must be done urgently by Your
Excellency.
Mr. Aneto Christian Chuba, on his part, as lucidly presented in
our said letter of 24th December, 2013, to the Commissioner,
has put up a disposition that very strongly suggests to us that whatever he has
done or will do in the matter is fraught with bias and insincere motives. A
situation whereby a public servant, maintained with our common resources,
unabashedly make some very unguarded comments such as “the poor do not
own land in G.R.A. ( government reserved area)” and “no matter
what you do the heavy weights can take over your land at will if you don’t have
money” etc, is highly condemnable.
FURTHER
THREATS & INTIMIDATION BY AMAECHI INOMA AND HIS THUGS.
The suspected hobnobbing between Amaechi Inoma &his thugs and
some staff of the Ministry of Lands and Urban Development has emboldened the
former to continue to unleash his unrestrained terror on the Pastor and his
family. On the 26th of December, 2013, at about 7.00am, Amaechi
Inoma led three other thugs to the demolished house of Pastor Sylvester Agu and
his family members, which most parts are now rubbles and after taunting and
harassing them, he told them that it will be to their best interest to leave
the place as they (Amaechi & co) have concluded an arrangement to storm the
place in a few days time with dozens of policemen to “clear” them from the
place. This, ordinarily, would have been viewed by us as a mere empty threat,
but the previous acts of impunity perpetrated by Amaechi & co, coupled with
his unhidden fraternity with some top malicious staffs in the Ministry, make it
difficult for us to trivialize it or treat it with kid gloves.
Though the probability of him using true police officers to carry
out his recent threat is low, for no right-thinking police officer will likely
get involved in this kind of absurdity, we are not ruling out the possibility
of Amaechi, in his characteristic desperation to satisfy his paymasters at all
cost, may cloth some of his thugs in police uniform and use them to carry out
this second phase of the brigandage. This is not the first time some criminal
elements will wear police uniforms as a cover to effectively commit their
intended criminal ends. Instances abound.
We restate, without equivocation, our condemnation of the ugly
situation under reference, where any person, no matter how highly placed or
whom he works for will invade another person’s dwelling house and reduce same
to a heap of rubbles without a valid judgment from a court of competent
jurisdiction. Even in matters of “overriding public interest”, absurdities such
as the one being complained of are totally absent. In such “overriding public
interest situations”, negotiations are initiated with victim parties fully
involved and adequate compensations including alternative places duly paid and
provided. It is utterly inhuman to render an innocent family homeless and turn
their legally and legitimately acquired dwelling house and property into
rubbles through acts unknowing to Nigeria’s body of laws and values.
OUR
CALL:
In the light of the above pellucid explanations and
encounters, Your Excellency, we call on you to investigate the activities that
go on in the Ministry of Lands with a view of fishing out those corrupt
elements that are bent on robbing and rubbishing the respected image of the
Government of Anambra State. Your Excellency’s efforts at entrusting on our
beloved State a peaceful, prosperous and egalitarian culture must not be
allowed to be tainted by the activities of selfish individuals in the
Civil/Public Service, premised on uncouth and unethical conducts.
Transparency and probity must remain the watchword and indeed, the guiding principle
in every process in the Anambra State Ministry of Lands & Urban
Development.
We also call on Your Excellency to issue a query to the
Commissioner for Lands & Urban Development, Barrister Okoli Akirika over
the obnoxious policy of extorting money from citizens and citizen-corporate
like Intersociety letters of socio-public interest are
delivered to him or his Ministry, even when such letters are of public interest
issue geared towards enhancing addressing the issues of justice, peace and
security in the State. Direct, also, that the said unpopular policy should be
abolished with immediate effect.
It is our further demand that Your Excellency should review all
the high profile activities carried out by the said Commissioner for Lands
& Urban Development since he became the Commissioner in charge of the
Ministry. These include all land/plot allocations and revocations as well as
the issue under reference (Pastor Sylvester Agu’s dwelling house demolition and
its certificate of occupancy procession saga). This is to ascertain their
genuineness or the otherwise and if he is found wanting in all or any of them,
then he should be relieved of his duty and made to face the music of the law.
The Commissioner’s conducts as complained suggest that he may not diligently
and impartially handle the main issue under reference. As a matter of fact, we
suspect strongly a foul play in the whole saga from the desk of the
Commissioner.
The roles of Ms. Oby Inoma and her likes in the Ministry should be
thoroughly investigated and any person found culpable of subverting due process
or involved in any criminal or administrative sabotage should be adequately
sanctioned. Sanity and discipline must be restored in the Ministry. Both
Amaechi and Oby Inoma and their cohorts are strongly believed to be working for
one Best Aluminum to render Pastor Sylvester Agu and members of his family
homeless and forcefully and maliciously take over their property on Magazine
Avenue, Onitsha GRA, Onitsha.
While we wait for the Inspector General of Police’s action on our
earlier letter to him, we call on Your Excellency to direct the security
agencies to be at alert and on lookout so as to forestall any attempts by
Amaechi Inoma and his cohorts to use the police, whether fake or real to
unleash further mayhem on the family under reference as any such attempts may
lead to a breakdown of law and order in the State or any part thereof.
We sincerely thank Your
Excellency immensely and hope that this letter will receive Your Excellency’s
usual urgent and proactive attention it deserves.
Signed and dated this 27th day
of December, 2013.
For: SOCIETY WATCH- A
Membership Project of International Society for Civil
Liberties and the Rule of Law –INTERSOCIETY
Justus Uche Ijeoma
Interim National Director
08037114869, 08182829278.
Chike Umeosonwune
Interim National Secretary
08064869601
Cc:
(1)The Commissioner of
Police, Anambra State Command
(2)The Area Commander,
Onitsha Area Command
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