Scandal rocks Enugu Ministry of Lands

A former Chairman of Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, Chief Chukwudi Ezinwa, has appealed to state State Governor, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, to sanitize the Ministry of Lands to arrest the alleged sleaze going on in the Ministry.

Einwa alleged that he was on the verge of losing a piece of land he bought from the Ministry in 2008 and has already developed but which Certificate of Occupancy was issued to another buyer in 2014 as a result of the large scale scam flourishing in the Ministry.

He said he has gone through a tortuous process to recover his land to no avail, hence his decision to make the alleged land scam in the Ministry public.

“I have done my best not to go public but I think that is the only way the Governor will know what is happening in the Ministry of Lands. He is not a spirit; there is no way I can blame the Governor over what is happening in the Ministry of Lands. Somebody is responsible and someone should be held responsible,” he told newsmen in Enugu while narrating his ordeal in the last 15 years.

He put his experience thus: “I bought a piece of land in 2008, precisely January, from a man who got allocation from the Ministry, signed by Deacon Okey Ogbodo who was then the Commissioner for Lands.

“Ogbodo confirmed the status of the land as genuine and instructed that I should go ahead and start developing, and I accepted.

“I went to the Ministry of lands, they took me to the site and showed it to me and I developed the land. I fenced the place, built four rooms and parlour, my security house and a fish pond.

“The greatest shock is that since I assumed ownership of that land, any day I apply for the processing of my documents, I will apply and take my application to open registry in the Ministry; they will stamp a copy for me with my phone number which is initially the proper steps, when it gets to the appropriate table they will call you to come for follow up.

“When I wait for a while, I won’t hear anything. When I go to the Commissioner, he will tell me that he didn’t see my documents. I will apply again and the same application will go missing. I didn’t suspect anything because I had already developed the land and nobody was disturbing me.

“I got relaxed. But in 2019, I went back to the Commissioner’s office and met the then Commissioner for Lands, Hon. Solomon Onah, who asked me to come but due to the exigency of my office, because then, I was still serving as Local Government Chairman, I couldn’t follow it up.

“After my tenure as Chairman, I decided to follow up and I applied again for processing of my Certificate of Occupancy, but it got missing again. I went back to see the Commissioner myself and after explaining the whole matter to him, he searched for the application and said he didn’t see it.

“He asked me to bring my acknowledgement copy which I did and he minuted on the photocopy and they started looking for my file. At the end, they said they didn’t see my file.

“I went to the bank and paid money and applied for search. Behold, they wanted to withhold the search, but somebody in the Lands said no, you cannot withhold the search at this point that this man has paid for the search, you must do these search. If it is negative or positive, you must do the search and do the report.

“Finally they gave me the report of the search and behold my land which I developed in 2009 had been allotted to someone else with C-of-O, in 2014. I looked at the search and went back to Commissioner and complained through a very senior person in government.

“The Commissioner instructed me to write a petition over what transpired on the land and I did. I wrote the petition on May 26 2021 and up till today, the Commissioner for Lands has not called me to come for the petition.

”I went to the Commissioner’s office, behold the same petition got missing again and he asked me to go and bring my acknowledgement copy. I brought it and he minuted on it. I pleaded with him that I have had several problems of missing document in this Ministry.

“He gave the petition to his Personal Assistant and we went together to the Director of Lands, Ngwu Chinyere, and told her that the Commissioner said she should investigate the matter and get back to him in the shortest possible time.

“I pleaded with the woman to do the needful because I’ve been having the same problem on this land for over 15 years; she said okay and asked me to come the following day.

“I went to her office the next day and she directed me to one Ifeoma whom she said will look into the matter.

“Ifeoma said I should come back in two days time. When I returned, she said I should take her to the site and I took her to the site and showed her my property and she saw all the development in my property and she asked if I am the one that that did all that and I said yes and she then said that I should give her time to do her report, I accepted.

“When I came back, she told me she had sent her report to the Director. I told her that I wasn’t comfortable with that as she has not concluded her investigations.

“I told her that already, the search I’m having showed me that another person is in my property with a C of O, that I expected her to invite both of us and ask us questions. I told her that she could not have concluded her report without inviting both of us. But she told me that she had given the file to her Director; that I should go and see the Director.

“The Director told me that someone already has a C-of-O of the land. I asked her what that meant and she looked at my profile and said that my file is fake.

“I asked her what she was up to and vowed that the Governor whom all of us are serving will hear this.

“I told her the she must explain and prove to me how the fake file got to her table and who faked it.

“So why I’m letting the public know is that I am not trying to ridicule the government I am serving, but trying to put it on the footnote that the Governor of Enugu State who is a very peaceful person should know what is happening in the Ministry of lands.

“I tried my best to meet with the Commissioner, I called him and he didn’t take my calls and I sent him several text messages but he didn’t respond to the texts.

“I reasoned that if this could happen to me, a serving person under this administration, what will happen to other people who don’t have the same opportunity.

“My take is that the governor should look into this matter and get the Ministry of Lands sanitized because I know he is a very peaceful man with a mind of an eagle that wouldn’t want to stain himself in this racketeering in the Ministry of Lands.