Enugu may prosecute resigned commissioner

There are strong indications that Enugu State Government may prosecute the immediate past Commissioner for Lands, Dr Chukwuemeka Nnam, who resigned from office last Friday.

A government source confided in The Guardian, yesterday, that Nnam’s resignation would not “stop the investigation over several alleged land deals committed during his administration in the Ministry of Lands in the state.”

The source stated that some of the petitions against him over the acquisition of land in the state were before the House of Assembly.

Nnam resigned his appointment on Friday, October 29, 2021, citing the recent removal of the professional heads of the department in his ministry on punitive grounds.

He had insisted that the removed directors were punished for simply doing their jobs diligently.

In the letter he addressed to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, dated October 29, 2021, he said his conscience would no longer allow him to continue to serve the administration, while those departmental heads were removed from the ministry.

He had written: “Sir, the reason for my resignation is the recent removal of the professional heads of the department under me on punitive grounds for simply doing their jobs diligently.”

Since his resignation, which was the first by any commissioner appointed by Ugwuanyi since he assumed office in 2015, several reactions have called for the probe of the former commissioner’s activities in the ministry.

Coalition of Enugu State Land Owners (CESLO) stated that resignation of the commissioner was long overdue.

The Chairman, Edeh Nkemdirim, stated: “This is because his tenure as land commissioner in Enugu is rife with unimaginable proportion of crises, illegal land revocations and re-allocations of same to his cronies.

“We are, therefore, joining our voices with that of the general public to call on Governor Ugwuanyi to institute a judicial panel of enquiry to look into the complaints of innocent land owners who allegedly suffered untold hardship from the subterfuge of the now resigned commissioner.”

Also, the state’s chairmen of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Virginus Nwobodo, and that of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Ben Asogwa, expressed dismay with the activities of Nnam, saying he revoked land belonging to members of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and re-allotted it to other people.

They urged the governor to appoint someone more humane in his place.