By Tony Nwankwo

In 1986, a retired military officer came to Abam, Arochukwu LGA, Abia State, seeking land to cushion his retirement.  A prominent Abam man took him to Idima Abam, where, using the chiefs and elders, he acquired 536,604 hectares of the community fertile land.

Briefed on the intrigues of buying land in Abam, he sought and obtained a Power of Attorney to legitimise his acquisition.  It all came crashing down, when his enterprise was put to proper legal examination.

The unwritten  constitution in Abam, Idima in particular, is simple.  Idima community owns all palm trees and fronds in all Idima land.  Secondly, no single or group of individuals is authorized by this doctrine to sell family land (maternal and paternal) without the overall consensus  of the family.  And outright sales are only allowed for specific purposes, such as erecting buildings within  capacity of approved space.

This is because anybody, old and young, even a riff raff can acquire land and will it over to his or her family. Therefore, all who have capacity or whose direct parents acquired land for the family must be consulted if they can be dispossessed.  Everyone must be involved in the buying and selling because the resultant squabble is usually infinite.

The retired military officer lost his bid for the lands, because, it was proved that the king and his council had no right whatsoever in Idima to rightfully sell lands, not even lands belonging to the king himself or his family.

The story making the rounds in Abam, is that a politician, well known for his greed and intrigues, is organising families, paying stipends to acquire lands left, right and centre.  The way he is going, before the next election, he would have bought up the lands of the community.

He is not only buying farmlands, he is buying lands belonging to families in conflict.  According to sources, he employs the services of a junior lawyer, who obviously is unaware of the Abam land doctrine.

According to an elder,  the community voted the politician into the State House of Assembly at Umuahia, from where he acquired a further garb as a contractor.

Sometime ago, he was awarded the contract to rehabilitate the Idima – Bende Road. Having embarked on the project, he suddenly changed gear and decided to put the contract fund to his own personal use.  What a better way to maximise profit, reap a thousand fold on his investment than to put the money on buying up Idima lands.  He sends surrogates who visit ogogoro bars where they ambush families who need immediate cash.

When family members show up, he offers whatever he deems as a rightful price for the lands. And these destitute families, particularly, those whose enlightened members are residing abroad, agree to a quick settlement.  He pays these destitute speculators, drafts agreement using the lawyer, he plants casava stems, and like the Wor Wor land, erects structure.

Many indigenes have been banished for disagreeing while others are now regular visitors to shrines within and outside Abam as they haggle about sharing. By the time this politician is done,  many families will have no more land to farm or share.

If I know Idima well, the money paid for the acquisition of lands illegally in Idima will fade away. The people whose forebears allowed them to inherit these lands will fade away; enlightened people, particularly those being sidelined in these cantankerous dealings in the name of making effervescent millions in a subsistent farming community will rise to ask how come the land left behind by their ancestors are suddenly no longer theirs for farming and for sharing.

However, the issue is that by employing this contract money through this obnoxious and illegitimate purchases, he has abandoned the road project. Meanwhile, a marginal four feet wide Idoyi stream cannot be crossed with a bridge. Today, the traffic from Idima reverts back through the World Bank Road, through Ameke Abam to Bende, an imaginary Israeli journey. And there are two other little bridges on the short road: Ichitagbo and Omanyi. The way it is now, unless pressure is put on this politician, from whoever awarded this contract to him, either the Abia State Government or the NDDC as earlier speculated, the hapless people of Idima and its adjoining satellite communities will continue to ply the ubiquitous World Bank Road, even at Christmas time.  This will be an insult, not only to the people of Abam, but also to the authorities who saw fit to hearken to the cries of the long suffering Idima people.

Again, elders interested in the stipends that accrue to their pockets are not looking north to Ndi Ememe, where a group of touts are trespassing into Idima land with no regard to the history of the land that had always been administered by Idima families.

They are not seeking sufficient counsel as to why Ndi Ememe people, people who sauntered around Okike Izu for an Abam  ceremony, stayed behind, after so much to eat and drink, now claim ownership of the land their fathers could never had contested. The area, a satellite communiy, was founded by Eche Eme of Idima Abam.   Not too long ago, Chief Agbai Edu of Ndi Obo Compound, was administering Ndi Ememe from Idima.

They paid him royalties and rent for farms as tenants.  A source even said they are claiming boundary up to Igwu River.  Whichever Igwu River?  They now intimidate Ndi Ekete people to pay royalties to them.  Idima owns Ogo Esien, Ududo, Orua Ukwu, all palm trees through that stretch to Amaelu. This should not have elicited any discussions, but for the consequences when the push comes to the shove. These lands are settled in different court judgements that reside in the archives.  It is suicidal to push Idima people from that flank.

*Nwankwo, is a staff of Vanguard Newspapers, Lagos.