The Ugwuaji Awkunanaw Community in Enugu South Local Council of Enugu State has dragged the state Attorney General and Housing Development Corporation to court over alleged illegal possession of their ancestral land.
 
They sought an order directing the duo to pay the sum of N1 billion as special damages to the community.They also sought from the court “an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their agents, servants and privies from interfering in whatsoever manner with the parcels of land respectively known as Otonozi Land, Ikiti Land, and New Jerusalem City Layout (Awana Land), all of which are situated at Ugwuaji Awkunanaw Community in Enugu South Local council of Enugu State.
 
The plaintiffs, namely Monday Igweshi, Simeon Ede, Christopher Ikechukwu Ugwu, Joseph Ngwu, and Kanayo O. Atu had, on behalf of the community in their statement of claim, stated they are the bona fide members and illustrious sons of Ugwuaji Awkunanaw Community of Enugu South Local council of Enugu State and members of the original Land Committee Ugwuaji, also referred to as “Land Committee Ugwuaji”. 

Counsel to the plaintiffs, G. O. Nwokeiwu, in a suit number: E/1079/2024, dated December 10, 2024,  said that “the invasion of the aforementioned parcels of land and destruction of the economic and food crops thereof by the defendants is unlawful and constitute acts of trespass on the land.
 
In their statement of claims, the plaintiffs stated that they are accountable to the authority of Ugwuaji Awkunanaw Community and Ugwuaji Awkunanaw General Assembly.
 
They further stated that they have the authority of the leadership of the Ugwuaji Awkunanaw Community to institute the suit for themselves and on behalf of members of the Ugwuaji Awkunanaw Community.
  
The Plaintiffs averred that members of Ugwuaji Awkunanaw Community are the original owners in possession of the parcels of land, maintaining that “the parcels of land are exclusively owned communally by the entire members of Ugwuaji Awkunanaw Community, who are represented in the suit by the plaintiffs on record”.