In response to growing concerns and ongoing disputes surrounding the alleged illegal acquisition and encroachment on land belonging to the Media Workers Multipurpose Cooperative Society (MPCS) in Delta State by the Obi Cubana Millennium Group, Chief Henry Omosor has issued a firm declaration, warning that the state will not tolerate lawlessness or the high-handed expropriation of land by corporate entities or influential individuals.
Addressing a cross-section of journalists on Friday night in Asaba, Chief Omosor, a retired magistrate court judge, strongly condemned the alleged actions of the Cubana Group, asserting that Delta State operates strictly under the rule of law, customary rights, and constitutional governance.
“Delta State is not a banana republic where money or influence supersedes the rule of law and the fundamental rights of our people.
”We will not fold our arms and watch retired and serving civil servants dispossessed of their hard-earned land under any guise.
”It is unfortunate that the Obi Cubana Millennium Group has shunned all diplomatic avenues to resolve the illegal grabbing of 28 acres of land in Issele-Azagba belonging to the Media Workers Multipurpose Cooperative Society.
”After writing several letters to the Obi Cubana Millennium Group, the MWMCS protested to the Governor of Delta State, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, who graciously directed the Ministry of Justice to intervene; however, the Obi Cubana Millennium Group has ignored all invitations for a meeting, thereby disrespecting our Governor, the government, and the people of Delta State.
”In the coming days, we will mobilise retired civil servants, serving workers, organised civil society, and allies in the struggle against oppression to picket the Obi Cubana Millennium Group in Asaba.
”The land grabbed by the Obi Cubana Millennium Group represents the life savings of several retired civil servants, and it is unjust for them to be dispossessed as if might were right in Delta State.”
More than 200 retirees, civil servants, and media workers have plots of land that were grabbed by the Cubana Millennium Group.
Last Wednesday, the Department of People’s Rights, Ministry of Justice, Delta State ended a meeting without the Obi Cubana Group or any of its representatives in attendance.
It followed a petition by the landowners over alleged encroachment on the disputed property, which was referred by the Governor’s Office to the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General for intervention.
The department invited the cooperative society, the community that owns the land, the cooperative’s surveyor, Titus Ayuba, the Cubana group’s surveyor, Charles Ogadi, and the Obi Cubana Millennium Group itself.
According to the MPCS President, Comrade Vincent Maduka, “the complainants and the host community were fully represented, and the title documents were on the table.
”The other side did not appear; rather than adjourning the meeting, a ministry official told the group its hands were tied.
”You called us to a meeting, and now you are advising us to go without giving us any hope, as if we are not lawful Deltans or humans who are being robbed of their property.
”We have a survey plan, and we have an agreement between us, the community, the seller, and the surveyor.
”We are crying out for help.
”It is not just four or five people; it is a group of retirees and many others involved in this; some are complaining that they have lost hope; this land is what they planned to use during their retirement.
”Some are looking for a way to build their own houses there because the area is developing.
”Most of us are Deltans, and if retired civil servants who are our members decide to picket the Cubana Millennium Group, we will mobilise members of other cooperative societies in Delta State to join them.
”What the Cubana Millennium Group is doing is not justifiable before man and God, and we cannot just fold our hands and allow the investments of our members to be stolen by an individual or a group, no matter how highly connected the person or group is. Nigeria is a democratic country and governed by the rule of law.”
