By Chimaobi Nwaiwu

NNEWI-Landlords in Oba Idemili South Local Government Area Anambra State under the aegis of United City Residents Landlords Association, Oba, have appealed to Governor Charles Soludo and the Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, Mr Nnaghi Obono Itam, to beam their security searchlight on Oba community to get rid of a growing security threat being perpetrated by some youth from the community.

The landlords said that if the alleged security threat is not nipped in the board, it may escalate to other parts of the state.

The landlords said that since they purchased land for building residential houses in Oba, a youth group named Compensatory Plot Committee, which claimed to have been approved by the state government has not allowed them to rest, as they forcefully come to collect one form of illegal levy or the other from them.

Addressing newsmen in Onitsha, the United City Residents Landlords Association, through their Secretary and spokesman, Kenechukwu Chinonso, who was surrounded by their Chairman, High Chief Charles Nze Mmachi, Obinna Umenwajiaku, Afamefuna Emembo and Chukwudi Kanayo, said that they bought their respective land in Oba community between 2014 to 2017 and paid the necessary development levies to the community and villages where their estates are located, with assurance that they are free to commence constructions on their lands without any disturbance.

“We are however, shocked that the youths that call themselves Compensatory Plot Committee, came up with the claim that they have been compensated with 1067 plots of land for an Oba Airport that was cancelled by the Anambra State government and are since then, using that claim enter into some of our members land.

“They did not stop at that, they are also using the name of the government to forcefully extort N4.2 million from us threatening that any landlord that refused to pay them the money will never be allowed to build on his land in Oba.

“We are not only forced to pay the N4.2 million, we are also forced to pay different sums of money at every stage of our building construction and failing to do so will attract beating and breaking of head and inflicting injury on another part of our body with dangerous weapons to make us pay without resistance.

“Some of the money we are forced to pay are, if you are building one decking house you pay them N200,000, if it is two decking house, you pay them, N300,000 and if you are building is three decking house you pay them N500,000, what they tell us is that they sold land to us and not up.

“People were paying the money out of fear because they come when workers have mixed cement with sand, up to 60 bags for building and no builder will like his 60 bags of cement to be wasted, and for that pay them to continue work.

“They also collect money from us for bringing materials for work, when they look at the quantity of the building materials you are bringing to the site and them, it is up to N1,000,000.00, they will tell you to give them N80,000 to N100,000, that you should know the worth of the goods you are bringing.

“They also come when you are roofing the house to demand N500,000, just as they collect N300,000 when you are plastering plastering your house. They collect N150,000 to N200,000 from us before we are allowed to dig a borehole in our building site.

“They also demand N80,000 feeding money for their youth Chairman, N50,000 for their Commander and N30,000 for what they call TYC money.

“One of us completed his building and wanted to pack in, the day he brought his property to pack in, they came and did not allow him to pack in. They demanded for N1,000,000,00, saying that only his seat, worth over N1,000,000,00. The man ended up giving them N500,000, before he was allowed to pack in. This is what we have been going through in Oba in the hands of those youths.”

“We went to the Commissioner for Lands to find out if the government actually permitted the collection of N4.2 million and she said that there was no such approval by the state government, and warned against dropping the name of the government and its officials for collecting such illegal levies from the people.

Efforts to speak with the President General of Oba Patriotic Union, OPU, Chief Uzochukwu Ejiofor Ogali, failed as he did not keep to an earlier appointment with the newsmen he invited to his house in Oba, to speak on the matter.

He did not also take subsequent calls made to his mobile phone for another appointment to visit him in Oba, since he declined to comment on the phone.

However, a text message sent to his phone by newsmen for a fresh appointment with him had the following reply. “Good morning. So sorry, I had a little health challenge, aside tfrom hat, am following up with some unprecedented issues recently! Please bear with me, will let you know when to come, thanks.”