Anambra House Assembly Lawmakers on Tuesday summoned the Commissioners for lands, Mr. Bonaventure Enemali, to appear before it over a missing land document belonging to one Chief Jude Osudi.
The order follows a petition filed by Chief Osudi, accusing the state government through the Ministry of Lands of criminally taking over his land, located at Agu-Awka in Awka South Local Government Area of the State without his knowledge.
The Chairman, House Committee on Public Petition and Conflict Resolution, Honourable Emeka Aforka, who addressed journalists shortly after inspecting the disputed land, said there was need for the Commissioner to appear before the committee for the sake of transparency, accountability and trust.
Aforka said that the commissioner should come and brief them on how the land document estimated to be over 100 hectares would be suddenly disappear in the ministry without the knowledge of those in charge of records and documentation.
He said, “We have been requesting for the file since the day the case was brought before the Committee, yet the Commissioner has refused to present it before us.
“Our interest is for the ministry to give us the disputed file called Plot C1 for us to know whether the land was revoked by the present administration of governor Willie Obiano or the past government.”
According to Aforka, section 49 of the Land Use Act,s says you must serve an occupant a notice before any revoked.
So, we are given the Commissioner between today, December 22, 2020 and third week of January, 2021 to honour our invitation as law abiding citizen.
Also the lawmaker asked Mr. Enemali to come and brief them on the level of public awareness and sensitisation about the activities of the ministry, especially on how lands are being sold in the state.
“Inviting the Commissioner will be a great opportunity to know about their activities against the sale resale of Lands without proper documentation,” Aforka added.
Other Lawmakers of the Committee, Hon. Noble Igwe, Hon.Ejike Okechukwu, Hon. Uzoma Eli and Dr. Timothy Ifedioranma however, took turns to support the motion, saying that there was the need for the Commissioner to to appear before them as the law demands to explain the truth picture of things.
The petitioner, who lauded the effort of the Lawmakers for standing for the true, also appealed to the commissioner to appear before the Committee with the requested missing file for justice, equity and peace to reign.
