Former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim has filed a N500m libel suit before the FCT High Court against an online outfit and two other individuals over the publication of a report accusing him of destroying farmland in Ebonyi State.
In the suit dated January 23, 2020, Anyim joins Moses Orji, Ogbonna Paul Arochukwu, and the Independent Communications Network Ltd as defendants for what he termed “baseless, unfounded and malicious publication” of unlawful seizure of land against him.
Anyim is also demanding the sum of N100m as cost of the action against the defendants as “aggravated, punitive and exemplary damages over the embarrassment, public odium, derision, ridicule, obloquy, mental agony and psychological trauma which the defendants’ publication has caused the claimant.”
Anyim is also demanding an order of the court restraining the defendants from making such further publications, and to make a full-page written apology in major national dailies such as: Vanguard, Thisday, Daily Trust, Punch, The Nation, The Guardian, and the Sun newspapers.
The defendants had in the publication on January 25 alleged that Anyim brought in bulldozers, using two individuals: Chinedu Makwe and Livinus Uka, to destroy the farmland with economic trees and crops belonging to Moses Orji in Amagu between January 21 and 22.
The former Senate principal officer and Secretary to the Government of the Federation stated that he had not instructed anyone to take over anyone’s land, adding that the land issue is communal, and not being the head of the community, he is not responsible for decisions in respect of land.
He described the allegation as plot to damage his character and reputation.
No date has been fixed for hearing.
Soirce:- Daily Trust
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Press Statement Issued by Barr. Ogbonna Paul Arochukwu, Attorney to Sir Moses Orji and Families affected by the Ongoing Unlawful Seizure/Destruction of Lands and Eviction of Land Owners at Ovumnte in Response to a Statement by the Amagu Development Union on 3rd February, 2020.
Our attention has been drawn to a publication by the President and executives of the Amagu Development Union purportedly absolving Chief Anyim Pius Anyim of alleged land grab in Ovumnte –Amagu, Ishiagu and also stating several falsehoods with a view to misleading members of the public.
To set the records straight, it is important to state that between 21st and 23rd January, 2020, a bulldozer accompanied by Mr. Livinus Uka and Mr. Chinedu Makwe (both of whom boastfully claimed to represent Chief Anyim Pius Anyim and the Amagu Development Union in Ishiagu, Ivo LGA, Ebonyi State), as well as armed thugs forcefully entered into Sir Moses Orji’s farm located at Ovumnte-Amagu, Ishiagu in Ivo LGA of Ebonyi State and destroyed over 400 palm trees in the palm planation. They also destroyed the farm tractor, plantain plantations, snail farms, poultry houses, fish ponds, economic trees and crop farms including yam farms, bean farms, and cassava farms, as well as farm lands. During the unlawful operation, they threatened to kill Sir Moses Orji, his wife; relatives and any person that dared to stop their operation.
During the seizure and destruction of the farm, Sir Moses Orji informed the DPO in charge of the Divisional Police Post in Ivo LGA and pleaded with him to stop the destruction; the DPO however refused to act to protect the property on the farm or even investigate the matter. Sir Moses Orji subsequently filed a suit at the High Court on the evening of 23rd January, 2020, asking the Court to stop the destruction of his farm. Notwithstanding that the Court ordered that status quo should be maintained, the said bulldozer accompanied by Mr. Livinus Uka, Mr. Chinedu Makwe and armed thugs, continued the destruction of Sir Moses Orji’s farm on 30th January, 2020. The Police DPO was alerted about the development, but again he refused to stop the culprits or even investigate the matter.
It is important to note that Sir Moses Orji is not the only victim of the ongoing unlawful seizure and destruction of lands and properties. The farmlands and properties of over 20 landowners at Ovumnte-Amagu were unlawfully seized and destroyed. An aged poor lady, Mrs. Maria Egu, whose farm was unlawfully seized and destroyed, just died on Sunday, 2nd February, 2020, primarily as a result of anguish over her forceful eviction from her property and loss of means of livelihood.
Already, many poor families at Ovumnte- Amagu, whose lands and properties are being unlawfully seized and destroyed, have filed a representative suit to assert their title to the land. However, executives of the Amagu Development Union in attempt to prevent those land owners as well as Sir Moses Orji from getting justice ordered town criers on 2nd February, 2020 to inform members of the Amagu Community that any person that approaches the Court for a determination of his/her title to land at Ovumnte-Amagu, will be excommunicated and ostracized from the Amagu community. It is very unfortunate and most barbaric that such order which gravely violates human rights will be issued by the Amagu Development Union in the 21st century.
It is most unfortunate that executives of the Amagu Development Union and its major principal clearly do not know the history of Ovumnte land and yet they have taken steps to forcefully and unlawfully appropriate the said land from its owners. This is why they have refused to enter a defense in the ongoing court case instituted against them by Sir Moses Orji, but rather preferred to be in contempt of Court by continuing the malicious destruction of Sir Moses Orji’s farm despite the matter being in Court.
Again, for the records, it will be important to state Sir Moses Orji who is an indigene of Amagu-Ishiagu, in Ivo LGA of Ebonyi State, is a peace loving man that is well known in the community. He is a pensioner, having retired from civil service. After his studies abroad, he returned to Nigeria, and served meritoriously in several capacities as a secondary school principal, a Local Government Education Secretary and as a Sole Administrator during the 1998 -1999 military-democratic transition. He established his farm known as ORJI FARMS around the late 1950s on a land belonging to his family at Ovumnte-Amagu, Ishiagu. Prior to that time, generations of his ancestors had lived and farmed on that piece of land without interference from anybody. And since he established his farm, he has maintained peaceful possession and occupation of the land without any form of interference, until the recent unlawful seizure and malicious destruction of his farm.
It is also well known that Chief Anyim Pius Anyim who is an indigene of Amagu, Ishiagu, has expressly stated that he wants to develop the area where Sir Moses Orji’s farm is located into a modern residential city. At the Amagu Development Union meeting on 31st December, 2019, Chief Pius Anyim stated his intention and declared that aside from himself, anybody farming or living in the area where the farm is located is a “tenant”. Following Chief Pius Anyim’s statement, some members of the Amagu Development Union forcefully began seizing all lands in the area with a view to developing residential plots and estates that will be sold to individuals or companies. No form of compensation is to be paid to the land owners and farmers in the area. The exercise of such barbaric powers clearly contravenes all civilized norms and more importantly violates the constitutionally guaranteed right to property under section 43 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as well as section 44 of the Constitution.
Our questions are thus: is the Amagu Development Union and its illustrious son who has proposed to develop a modern residential city at Ovumnte-Amagu, Ishiagu, above the Constitution and applicable laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Does the Amagu Development Union and its illustrious son have the right to forcefully seize a land belonging to a citizen of Nigeria and transfer it to another individual for use as a private residential estate?
Sir Moses Orji was present at a meeting on 31st December, 2019, where Chief Pius Anyim declared that everybody living at Ovumnte-Amagu was a “tenant” and that he intended to develop Ovumnte-Amagu into “a modern residential city”. However, Sir Moses Orji who is a highly educated individual and one of the oldest persons in Amagu community never saw the need to object such declarations because he holds a legitimate title to his land and believes that issues regarding lawful title land are not matters to be determined by gullible community union executives hand-picked by powerful persons desperately seeking to unlawfully appropriate lands belonging to poor individuals of the community. Moreover, it is on record that lawyers acting on the instructions of Sir Moses Orji wrote a letter dated 2nd January, 2020, to the President of the Amagu Development Union advising him and members of the Amagu Land Committee not to trespass into Sir Moses Orji’s farm. The receipt of the said letter was acknowledged by President of the Amagu Development Union.
The claim that Sir Moses Orji and his family “were allocated one thousand square meters of plot of land in the area” is a very malicious claim that is aimed to distract. This is because Sir Moses Orji never supported the ongoing unlawful seizure of lands and eviction of land owners at Ovumnte-Amagu and therefore never paid the 1.2 million Naira which the executives of the Amagu Development Union and its Land Committee forcefully demanded from him as a condition to leave parts of his farm.
Sir Moses Orji is a highly respected elder in Ishiagu, and is known to be very contented, truthful, peace loving and bears no malice to anyone. He has had a successful and distinguished career as a teacher and as a civil servant and opposes injustice. It was Sir Moses Orji’s stance against injustice that made him to oppose Chief Pius Anyim’s attempt to use elders of Amagu community to deceitfully and forcefully acquire over 200 hectares of land belonging to Amagu indigenes along the Afikpo-Okigwe expressway. Today, Chief Pius Anyim has fenced the said piece of land with cast concrete and converted it to a private game reserve, while many affected land owners have lost their means of livelihood.
As a peaceful and law abiding elderly citizen who has served Nigeria to the best of his abilities, we believe that he should be respected and allowed to peacefully conduct his farming activities and contribute to the food security of Nigeria. However, on the contrary, Sir Moses Orji’s life and that of his wife is being threatened, he has been threatened with excommunication because he sought to protect his right through a Court of Law, his life time investments have been maliciously destroyed and his farmlands seized by envious and criminally minded individuals acting in a slavish obedience to their principal’s desire.
To throw more light on this matter, we are inviting independent news investigators, journalists, the National Human Rights Commission, human right organizations, and relevant government agencies to independently conduct investigations into the ongoing unlawful seizure/destruction of farm lands and properties and the eviction of poor land owners at Ovumnte-Amagu, Ishiagu in Ivo LGA of Ebnyi State.
Thank you.
Barr. Ogbonna Paul Arochukwu.
Phone: 08037583481;
Email: arochukwulaw@gmail.com;
arochukwulaw@yahoo.com