Anambra community accuses police of harassment over disputed land

Hundreds of residents, including community leaders, youths and the elderly of Ezinano Community in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State, have expressed fear over the invasion of their community by heavily armed security operatives.

The residents, who spoke with journalists on Sunday, said they were living in fear as the security operatives continued to harass and intimidate them unabated over disputed land in the community.

Our correspondent gathered that the disputed land is between the people of Ezinano community and a neighbouring community (name withheld), both in Awka South LGA. Both communities are laying claims to the disputed land.

Speaking in separate interviews, the residents said there was tension in the community on Saturday when heavily armed men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the state police command, invaded the area and started shooting without notice.
In a video seen on social media by our correspondent on Sunday, the residents were seen scampering to safety while they narrated how they were hearing gunshots from their various houses.

This development, according to them, followed the siege on their community land by the heavily armed men of the state police command.

A community leader, who identified himself as Uchenna, said, “The ugly shooting incident occurred on Friday and Saturday on the disputed land between the people of Ezinano community and our neighbouring community both in the same council area.
“If not for the quick intervention of the Commissioner of Police, Obono Nnaghe Itam, who ordered that all the parties leave the scene immediately, there could have been a possible bloodbath.
“The leaders, women and youths of Ezinano community had stormed their ancestral land which the other community is also laying claim to as their own, only to be confronted by several plain-clothes operatives who laid siege to the area.

“Trouble started when the people of Ezinano community arrived at their land on hearing that members of the other community had started erecting perimeter fences, erosion channels/gutter and other structures on the land without recourse to the pending case in court, but only to  deploy police to the area to perfect their heinous crimes.”

It was learnt that the Ezinano people on arrival at the disputed land were ordered by the police operatives to leave the land or be sent to their early graves, a development which prompted them to raise the alarm and urgently called on Nnaghe Itam for their rescue and to wade into the matter.

The people, during the stalemate, protested the police invasion of their land.

A farmer and resident of the community, Gloria Chiama, called on the relevant authorities to caution the police, saying, “The police do not meddle in matters of a land dispute between communities and individuals rather they maintain law and order.”

PUNCH Metro reports that elders and leaders of the Ezinano community had earlier written a petition dated September 11, 2024, to the chairman of the Police Service Commission, which was copied to the Presidency, Inspector General of Police, Complaint Response Unit of the Police Force Headquarters Abuja and Commissioner of Police, Anambra State, against a senior police officer over alleged meddlesomeness on the same land.
When contacted on the development, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State command, Tochukwu Ikenga, urged the leaders and people of Ezinano community to come forward with their complaints to the police in the state.

Ikenga said, “We are aware of what is going on there and the CP is intervening in the matter. The Ezinano people, if they have any other issue, they should come straight to the command, they have the numbers of the Commissioner of Police and they have my number. If they have any issue, they can come to the command and lay their complaints.”