Youths of Ifite-Nteje in Oyi local government area have protested the alleged intimidation and extra judicial killings in the area and urged the Anambra State government to come to their rescue.
The youths, who spoke through their counsel, Mr. Martins Okechukwu during a protest in the community, accused an influential person in the community of being the brain behind the troubleshooting and called on the government to constitute a judicial panel of inquiry to investigate the matter.
According to Okechukwu, the affected individuals were also sponsoring terrorism in Nteje by arming youths involved in the sale of communal land, renting crowd to scuttle police investigation and demanding from various quarters of the community about six hundred plots of land.
He said that some of the youths opposed to the selling of their ancestral land were detained at a police custody in Abuja, adding that many of them had died in the process following torture and brutality.
He recalled that the Inspector General of Police had directed the state Commissioner of Police to investigate the Nteje matter, stating that in the process, some loyalists of the influential man were arrested with fire arms.h
“The floating of arms and ammunition is on the high side in the community as a result of the total breakdown of law and order necessitated by the indiscriminate selling of ancestral land”, he said.
Speaking on the matter, Mr. Lazarus Aniefuna whose two houses were razed down in the past three months, said he has been in exile, while his family has been suffering.
He said that for peace to reign in the community, the people should be allowed to manage themselves, without interference from other quarters.
He called on the state government to restore sanity in the community by deploying law enforcement agents to the place.
President of the Caretaker Committee of Nteje Town Union, Chief Benneth Chinweze, said the community has been in disarray due to police intimidation, adding that despite efforts to make the Zone 13 police intervene what is happening in Nteje, there has not been any progress.
He regretted that charges of murder and illegal possessive of firearms were being leveled against innocent people to ensure that they were detained without bail.
Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria