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Rukpokwu Residents Send SOS To Wike, IGP Over Looming Crisis
Residents of Royal Estate Phase 2 on SARS Road, Rukpokwu in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State have called on the state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, and the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, to urgently wade in to forestall the possible breakdown of law and order as well as the breach of public peace by hoodlums in the area.
The residents, who made the call while speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt, last Monday, expressed regrets over what they described as horrifying brutalisation of legitimate land owners by a notorious gang of land grabbers operating in Rukpokwu axis.
The residents and legitimate purchasers also warned that if nothing was done to halt the violence, there may be a resort to self-help.
“There is no way that someone can be forced out of his land after he has spent four to N10million”, the residents said.
A resident, who identified himself as Eric Jackson, alleged that the head of the grabbers’ gang was one, Mr. Douglas Tenko, fondly referred to as ‘The Don’.
He alleged that ‘The Don’, who heads the land grabbers’ gang, also has more than 50 goons who help him to achieve his purpose.
Jackson said ‘The Don’ was working in connivance with some chiefs, elders and community development committee members to wreak mayhem and grab people’s property.
He explained that top police officers in Port Harcourt, Zone 16, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, and Force Headquarters, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, were in league with ‘The Don’ and his goons.
Jackson also expressed regrets over what he described as terrifying brutalisation of bonafide purchasers and the framing of phantom charges against them in effort to dispossess them of their parcels of land.
He said that the Royal Estate Phase2 had been overrun by the grabbers who extort money from landowners in the area.
Jackson accused one Mr. Jacob Samuel from Delta State of being the mastermind of the land grabbing scheme in the area.
He said that Samuel had been hired by the real owner of Eliokpokwu marshy area, Rukpokwu, Mr. Nnanta Chinedu.
He alleged that because of greed, Samuel elicited the support of ‘The Don’ and his goons to dispossess Nnanta permanently of his property.
He said most purchasers who bought their parcels of land from the beneficial owner were often marooned and framed up with phantom charges to cower them into the abandonment of their legal ownership of the land they purchased.
He said that a picture of a corpse lying in a canal was used to slam phantom charge of murder to purchasers who bought directly from the beneficial owner and dispossess them.
Jackson also said Chinedu was remanded in prison custody over a phantom charge of murder with the intention of compelling him to back out of his heritage.
He said the police officers who caused Chinedu to be remanded in custody were working for ‘The Don’.
He said some of the police accomplices in the scheme claim to be working on the order of IGP.
A Port Harcourt-based lawyer and counsel to Mr. Chinedu Nnanta said that the marshes in dispute belonged to his client who inherited same from his father according to Ikwerre native laws and customs as applicable in Eliokpokwu-Odu, Rukpokwu.
He remarked that the ownership of the land in dispute was already pending in the High Court but noted that Mr. Douglas Tenko and Elder Prince Sunny Okpara were defendants in the matter but would not come to court to defend their matter.
He pointed out that ownership of land was civil matter and not criminal.
Also speaking, the acting head of Eliokpokwu-Odu community, Chief Achineke Mecha, accused Rumuagholu community of using hoodlums and certain police officers to dispossess them of their land.
He also called on the IGP to wade into the matter.
Mecha claimed that the land they sold to a certain estate developer was being challenged by a privileged police officer and his tugs.
He warned the police to stay away from Eliokpokwu-Odu community land.
Mecha said Rumuagholu was using the matter they won in 1961 to claim adjoining lands not captured in the survey plan.
Also speaking, a principal member of Eliokpokwu-Odu community, Elder Sunny Okpara, expressed regret that Rumuagholu was trespassing into their exclusive possession.
The Tide investigation revealed that Tenko was selling land he retrieved from legitimate purchasers to an estate development company whose owner has clout all over the Nigerian federation.
The Tidealso gathered that the owner of the estate, who worked behind the scenes, made it difficult for ‘The Don’ and his goons to be prosecuted for the plethora of heinous crimes they have allegedly committed by reportedly dispossessing legitimate owners of their lands
By: Chidi Enyie
