Leaders of Ovumte Amagu Ishiagu community in Ivo local government of Ebonyi State have denied the allegation that former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, is involved in land grabbing.
Specifically, Anyim was accused of being responsible for a forceful takeover of a communal land and the destruction of farmlands in his hometown.
But in a swift reaction to the claim, leaders of the community said Anyim was innocent.
The denial is contained in a five-page press statement signed by the chairman of the Amagu Development Union, Mr Livinus O. Uka, and four executives of the union.
The leaders said the claim against the former Senate President was a deliberate falsehood calculated to smear his reputation.
In the statement titled “Facts about Ovumte land and the ongoing development,” the leaders of the community noted that the land in question was an ancestral land which had 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 leaders further stated 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 did not arise since all members had been appropriately informed of a land allocation exercise.
The leaders stated further: “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.”
