In a swift reaction to the land grabbing allegation levelled against former Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, leaders of his community, under the auspices of the Amagu Development Union, have declared that the former Senate President is innocent.
This was contained in a five-page statement signed by the Chairman of the Amagu Development Union, Mr Livinus O. Uka and four executives of the Union.
The former Senate President had been alleged by some aggrieved members of the community for being responsible for a forceful takeover of a communal land and the destruction of farmlands in his hometown of Ovumte Amagu Ishiagu community in Ivo local government of Ebonyi State.
However, contrary to this claim, the leaders of the community debunked such accusation, saying it is a deliberate falsehood calculated to smear the reputation of the former Senate President and the Community.
In a statement, titled “Facts about Ovumte land and the ongoing development”, the leaders noted that the land in question is an ancestral land which has been collectively decided to be parceled out as a residential estate.
They noted that since 1999, Anyim, himself an Ovumte indigene, had been allocated a portion of land by the Amagu Development Union under the erstwhile leadership of late Mr. Raymond Chukwu for residential purposes.
The statement further read that in 2001 the Union had resolved to use the 158 hectares of land as a residential estate after a Land Use Committee had approved of its use.
They said contrary to the claim, all families represented had been carried along and as such, an incidence of farm destruction does not arise since all members had been appropriately informed of a land allocation exercise.
According to the statement, “Ovumte land being a farm zone is over grown in every part of it with wild palm trees and that in all other parts already cleared, some trees were brought down and nobody complained.
“No house has been touched or destroyed since the work started. The Ovumte land, measuring approximately 158 hectares, is entirely farmland and every farmer exists there as a tenant to the village. Senator Anyim is neither a member of the land Committee nor a member of the Amagu Development Union executive nor does he have any special role to play in the implementation of the village decisions.
The Ovumte Land Committee never and have no reasons to take instructions from Senator Anyim or anyone else as their commitment had only been to implement the resolutions and decisions of Amagu Development Union”.
