…This protest is for government to hear our cry and come to our aid – Aniedobe
Security operatives consisting of police, soldiers, civil defence and vigilante operatives on Tuesday morning stopped the youths of Nimo community led by Mr Chigbo Aniedobe who had planned to protest over the activities of a few rich people.
ANN reports that the youths had gathered to register their displeasure but were stopped by the security operatives at Oye Nimo. The sight of the fully armed security operatives numbering about 100, sent fears into most members of the community.
The operatives stopped them from marching round the community with their placards, insisting that they did not get clearance from the police to hold any protest. The security operatives insisted the protest should be shelved for a later date.
Leader of the protesting youths, Mr Chigbo Aniedobe told journalists that some elements in the community have changed the name of the land from Ana Owa to Obodo Oma Estate, and have put a price tag of N3.1million to a plot.
“We are not ready to fight anyone, we are not going to make trouble, but this protest is for government to hear our cry and come to our aid. At least, posterity will vindicate us that we spoke up when this was happening.”
The protesters who spoke to journalists insisted that they duly received clearance, and that the protest was against the sale of a large parcel of land in the community, known as Ana Owa.
Though they were stopped from undertaking the protest march, they however displayed placards with various inscriptions.
Some of the placards read: ‘Ana Owa is not for sale’, ‘stop selling off our inheritance’, ‘you are supposed to be protecting us, not selling our property’, among others.
Barr Chux Okonkwo, a Lagos based legal practitioner and former chairman of Nimo Town Development Union, Lagos branch who participated in the protest accused some powerful leaders in the community of being responsible for the sales of their inheritance, but did not name them.
He said: “A vast expanse of land, known as Ana Owa, which was gotten by conquest during a war, many decades ago is being sold off today by some people in this community.
“They said they have realised N900million from sales of the land, even though no one authorized them to sell it, and they now claim they have spent N1.2billion, which means we owe them about N300,000. They can not even account for what they did with the funds.
” That is why we want to protest, but you see the platoon of security men they brought to stop us. It is the same people that are selling off the land that are trying everything possible to stop us.”
