Ebonyi: How Ivo DPO allegedly incited Pius Anyim thugs to attack & maim Ovumnte land owners

Ovumnte land owners in Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State have cried out for justice after they were allegedly attacked by some hoodlums sponsored by the former secretary to the Federal government of Nigeria, Pius Anyim over a land grab case.

On 3rd February, 2021, around 12 PM, Mr. Nwornu Daniel, the DPO in charge of Ivo Local Government Area in Ebonyi State incited allegedly thugs loyal to Chief Anyim Pius Anyim to attack Ovumnte Land Owners at the Ivo Local Government Council headquarters, Isiaka, after the Executive Chairman of LGA, Chief Onyebuchi Ogbadu had invited Ovumnte land owners and Chief Pius Anyim’s representatives to a meeting over the ongoing Ovumnte land grab case against Chief Pius Anyim.

How The Attack Was Carried Out

ElombahNews gathered that between 27th January, 2021 and 2nd February, 2021, a bulldozer which came from Chief Pius Anyim’s residence in Ovumnte, Amagu, Ishiagu in Ivo LGA entered into the farms of several land owners at Ovumnte against the Preservative Orders of the Ebonyi State High Court in consolidated Suits HSK/4/2020, HSK/6/2020 and HSK/19/202 that Status Quo should be maintained, and destroyed crops, farm houses, economic trees and other properties.

While on 2nd February, 2021, members of the Ovumnte community confronted the bulldozer operator and directed him to leave their lands as the High Court had ordered that Status Quo be maintained in the above suits which Members of the community had instituted in January, 2020, against Chief Pius Anyim and his agents, including Mr. Chinedu Nicholas Makwe, (a Pharmacist and Director with the National Health Insurance Scheme) and a brother to the House of Representatives Member, representing Ivo/Federal Constituency.

Members of the Ovumnte community on that 2nd February, 2021, reported the matter to Mr. Nwornu Daniel, the DPO in charge of Ivo LGA who refused to accept their complaint. That same day, the Executive Chairman of LGA then invited Ovumnte Land Owners and Chief Pius Anyim’s representatives to a meeting on 4th February, 2020, by 7.30 AM, at the Ivo Local Government Council headquarters, Isiaka.

At the said meeting which held at the Council Hall, the Executive Chairman of LGA, Chief Onyebuchi Ogbadu read the ruling of the Ebonyi State High Court which ordered that status quo should be maintained and ordered Mr. Nwornu Daniel, the DPO to ensure that Chief Pius Anyim’s bulldozer was removed from the Ovumnte land. The DPO however, told the Executive Chairman of LGA and Chief Pius Anyim’s representatives were in the Council Hall, that a status quo order meant that all parties to the suit should not enter the land again and that original land owners were disobeying Chief Pius Anyim by their continuous presence on the land and that they should vacate if they want peace.

However, at that point, Chief Pius Anyim’s representatives who had come to the Ivo Local Government Council headquarters with armed thugs shouted and hailed the DPO’s interpretation of status quo and then, their thugs unleashed mayhem on Ovumnte Land Owners and destroyed their cars, motorcycles and bicycles and also beat several persons to the point of death. The DPO who clearly saw Chief Pius Anyim’s thugs destroying properties and beating Ovumnte land owners at the Council headquarters left the scene with his Police team without quelling the crisis he incited. The Executive Chairman of LGA was mobbed by Chief Pius Anyim’s thugs who seized his phones. Those beaten and wounded during the mayhem include: Mr. Friday Ovia, Mr. Ogo Okeke, Sir Moses Orji, Lady Christiana Orji, Mr. Eze Francis and aged widows.

Christiana Orji (Victim)

Another victim of the attack in the hospital

Another victim on the hospital bed

Ivo DPO, SP Nwornu Daniel

Recall that earlier, members of the Ovumnte Community had issued a Pre-Action Notice to the Nigeria Police Service Commission in December, 2020, expressing their intention to file an action for an Order of Mandamus against the Commission over its failure to investigate Mr. Nwornu Daniel who was assisting Chief Anyim Pius Anyim to grab their lands.

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