How I was kidnapped for refusing to sell land – Anambra community leader

Ozo Ozoemena Okeke, Vice Chairman of Obunagu Achalla village in Enugu Agidi community, Njikoka Local Government Area, Anambra State, has raised alarm over an alleged plot by some of his kinsmen to eliminate him.

Speaking at his home on Sunday, Okeke accused a group of individuals within his community of orchestrating two kidnapping attempts on his life between 2023 and 2024.

Okeke claims the attacks stem from his refusal to sell community lands, a stance that has made him a target of those profiting from the unauthorized sale of communal property. “It was God who saved my life,” he said, adding that he was forced to pay ransoms to secure his release on both occasions.

According to Okeke, four of his kinsmen are allegedly collaborating with suspected kidnappers in a bid to eliminate him. He believes their aim is to remove him as an obstacle to their ongoing appropriation and sale of communal lands.

“They want to sell parts of our ancestral land to the highest bidders, leaving the community and its people in poverty,” Okeke stated.

He added that his stand against these actions has put him at odds with these individuals, who he claims are determined to silence him permanently.

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He said, “My first experience was on October 17, 2023. It was the initial period the road in front of my house was being graded, which they claimed that I sold the land to someone, but I did not sell any land.

“Thinking that I had sold a piece of land, these people invited kidnappers to kidnap me so that I would bring out the money suspected to be paid for the land.

“I think this set of suspected kidnappers are poor because they collected all my foodstuff including garri, palm oil, salt among others. They discovered I had only N22.00 in my bank account through phone and no other bank accounts.

“They wondered where the money they claimed that I realised from the land should be. They concluded it was a mere allegation and I was freed.”

“The second invasion was in August 2024. After the peace meeting with my people, the kidnappers invaded my house again around 4 pm that fateful day and took me into the bush to Urum in the Awka North local district before proceeding towards one shrine in Ukwulu. I stayed three days before they released me.”

But in a swift reaction when contacted, the Chairman of Obunagu-Achalla in Enugwu Agidi Community, Emeka Ementa, denied any link with suspected kidnappers that kidnapped Okeke at any given time nor any knowledge about the incident.

He admitted that the community at a meeting under his leadership agreed to suspend and ostracise Okeke and others for their sabotage of the corporate existence of the community by aligning with the Ezinano Awka community on the controversial peace deal with Obunagu-Achalla village in Enugwu Agidi Community over their land.

“Well, I don’t have any contact with any kidnap syndicate, I don’t even intend to. I am only saying that he(Okeke) should change his way of life; he has been known for this over the years.

“The community only took normal cautions to suspend him from our meetings and other activities. The decision was taken at a general meeting, not personal to me. So, I wouldn’t think and I never thought about that. Why would I kidnap him, for what?

“I have never heard of this kidnap of a thing. It is him forging this kidnap thing. It’s like a drama to me; it’s a forgery and I have not heard of it anyway. But Okeke has been known for this kind of behaviour.”

On the question of the ancestral relationship between Ezinano Awka and Enugwu Agidi people over the land in dispute, Ementa explained, “The land is called Agu-Nawgu because Nawgu people were living there before and were part of it.

“After Nawgu was removed by the six communities of Awka, Isu, Enugwu Agidi, Nawfia, Amawbia and I think Okpuno. It’s a land got after a conquest and shared into six, everybody has theirs. Awka has its own and so are other communities.

“So, a major part of that land is where the Awka people are now contesting with us in court. The whole of that land, part of which is our ancestral land, they are joining both the ancestral land and that of Nawgu to the place they are dragging with us in court.

“The court in its unanimous decisions gave it to us in three court sessions, the Awka court, High Court and the Appeal Court.

“We are now asking the state government to use its good offices to intervene because Enugwu-Agidi has suffered so much.”

(Punch)