Approximately 1,000 landlords and residents from Iyiowa Odekpe in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, united under the banner of the Iyiowa Community Landlords/Residents Association, staged a protest on Wednesday.
They voiced concerns over alleged incidents of killings, property destruction, imposition of multiple levies, and extortion.
The diverse group of protesters, encompassing men, women, and the elderly, marched to the Government House in Awka, the state capital. Carrying various placards bearing different inscriptions, they aimed to communicate their grievances.
In their plea, they sought intervention from the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, to address and alleviate their concerns.
Some of the inscriptions include, “Iyiowa community is a hostile community”, “Odekpe leadership is sponsoring terrorism”, “Odekpe is home of touting”, “Stop illegal collection of levies”, and “We are under siege of multiple taxations”, among others.
Stressing the need for the immediate intervention of the state government, the leader of the protesters, Dr Okolie Chukwunonso, who was flanked by the chairman of the embattled community, Chief Sunday Obinze, disclosed that hoodlums sponsored by the host community invaded their community on November 7, killed two persons, and destroyed goods and property worth over N30million.
Chukwunonso said, “On November 7, 2023 over N30 million worth of goods and property, including over 30 cars and scores of buildings were destroyed when some yet-to-be-identified hoodlums invaded our community around 7.30 am.
“The hoodlums also shot two persons dead on that day. This is unacceptable to us anymore.
“Again, landlords and residents were always imposed with N10,000 monthly levies by various groups of Odekpe indigenes, who always come to extort us daily.
“We are using this medium to resist this obnoxious imposition because we are not in a banana republic, we are refusing those impositions but not by physically fighting but by reporting them to the state government and that is why we are here to report them.
“On that November 7, the Odekpe youths, led by their President General stormed our community and started burning cars, houses, shops and other possessions of non indigenes resident in the area.”
The state Chief of Staff , Ernest Ezeajughi, who received the protesters on behalf of the state governor, condemned the alleged mayhem in the community and vowed to bring the perpetrators to book, reiterating that Soludo’s administration is not in support of hooliganism.
“It is unfortunate that the destructions were done by our own people, we have to invite the President-General of Iyiowa Odekpe to the Government House within the week, to come and explain because we can’t tolerate this mayhem.
“Just give us time, probably two weeks, we will look into the matter, we will invite the PG within the week, we say no to such mayhem, we want every community to be peaceful,” he stated.
When contacted, the state police spokesman, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, said the command was aware of the development in the area and is working to bring sanity to the area.
“We are aware of the development in that community and security operatives are on top of the situation. It is a case of disagreement between some parties,” Ikenga added.
In a telephone interview, the accused President General of the community, Innocent Nwanosike, denied the allegations, saying, “It is a case of election dispute.”
