Family members of Oyovie, Erovie Quarters in Ozoro, Isoko North Council Area of Delta State, have sent a save our souls to the Delta State Commissioner of Police, to save them from the hands of lawmakers, Hon. Leo Ogor Okuweh who has allegedly threatened to deal with them.
The family claimed that their predicament started when they challenged the lawmaker over the land issue. The family is demanding for justice over what it described as oppression by the lawmaker who is accused of fraudulently acquiring their land alongside others in the name of the constituency project.
The family is appealing to the that the state police Command approves their demand for a police escort to enable them to have unhindered access to the Ogbomore bush that had been fenced with a gate securely locked by the lawmaker to prevent them from entering the area.
Speaking to newsmen on behalf of the family in Ozoro, Prince Kennedy Onorikuta, noted that the need to carry out the survey of their landed property in the area had become imperative to enable them to ascertain the exact figure of plots belonging to them.
According to him :
“We have been able to secure two separate court orders, one in October 2017 and the other in March 2018, compelling two Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) who had served in Ozoro division to provide us with escort to access the land in question but they both declined before they were redeployed”.
“That is why we are now calling on the state police Commissioner, CP Adeyinka Adeleke, to come to our aide by approving for us police escort that would lead us to the Ogbomore bush where the land is located to be able to carry out the survey to know the exact number of plots we have there because we are suspecting it could be more than that 150 plots”.
“This whole fraudulent land acquisition process started in 2016 when this same lawmaker we voted for came and said he wanted to embark on a constituency project for the benefit of the community. Initially, we (the landowners) insisted on having a dialogue with him on a lease agreement for our lands”,
he said
“But we were surprised when he started paying some persons N100,000 per plot and demanded the deeds. Our family refused to be part of this arrangement because we wanted a situation where we all agree to lease than outright sales of the land”.
“Sensing that our family was not ready to play along in his ploy to give N100,000 for a plot, he decided to just fence the entire area estimated at 800 plots with my family alone, the Oyovie, accounting for more than 150 plots and thereby denying us access to the land in question”,
Prince Onorikuta stated.
Delta State Police Commissioner, CP Adeyinka Adeleke, when contacted, said he would come into the matter. The CP who raised the alarm over increase in land disputes in the area assured that the Command would revisit the matter.
