Governor Peter Mbah’s Owo Community, Nkanu East Local Government, Enugu State, erupted in protest on Monday over aan lleged plot by the Nigerian Army to dispossess them of their ancestral land.

The protest, which has heightened tension in the area, saw the natives, many of them women and the aged, carrying placards with different inscriptions such as “Remove soldiers, restore peace,” “Owo land is not barracks,” “Stop the invasion,” “Respect the constitution,” “Say No to Military Land Grabbing,” “President Tinubu, save us from military intimidation,” “Army, leave our land alone.

They stated that the Nigerian army has marked several buildings in the community for demolition in the guise that the land belonged to them, adding that should the recent action be allowed, the entire community would be evicted from the area, which they have occupied for ages.

But when contacted, the Army spokesman at 82 Division, Enugu Lt. Col. Olabisi Ayeni, said he would investigate the issue, adding that he should be shown “evidence of the Army’s rough handling of the community”. He refused to speak further on the matter.

On Monday, elderly men, community heads, women and youths came out in their numbers to protest the attempt to forcefully take over their land by the military without any treaty or agreement.

They lamented that the alleged acts of intimidation and misuse of security assets entrusted to them by the constitution were carried out despite a court injunction restraining the Army from entering the extensive community land and called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to come to their rescue.

Addressing journalists during the protest, counsel to Owo Community, Igwenagu Ngene, said the army invaded the community first in November 2015 and started marking “Remove, Army land, keep off” on their buildings

Ngene disclosed that the soldiers also mounted billboards and beacons in every nook and cranny of the community, claiming that the entire community belonged to the Nigerian Army.

He stated that he immediately wrote on behalf of the community to the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu, in November 2015, requesting that the soldiers be withdrawn from the area.

Continuing, Ngene stated that when they could not get any positive response from the 82 Division authorities, they wrote to the Enugu State Government and the Enugu State House of Assembly, calling for their intervention in the situation, which the people of Owo described as a case of annihilation, land grab, and an invasion of a whole community that is unknown to law and unheard of.

“Except in a case of military conquest, where after conquering, you possibly annex it and make it part of your own, but this is not the case here,” he declared

Ngene further hinted that they also petitioned the Ministry of Lands in Enugu, which invited the Nigerian Army, represented by eight army generals, and the Owo community. However, they expressed dismay that during the deliberation, the Army declined to make any comment.

He claimed that instead, the Army continued to insist that the entire community land belonged to them.

Ngene averred that when all entreaties failed, they took the case to the National Assembly, NASS, where, after a fact-finding visit and various hearings conducted by the legislators, the Army was asked to stay away from the land, as the security agency could not provide any document to back their claim of land ownership.

He further told journalists that the Army stayed off after the intervention until April 2025, when they returned, prompting the community to approach the court, where they got an injunction in suit number 375/2025 against the Nigerian Army.

He disclosed that the Enugu State High Court, presided over by Justice C. O. Ajah, issued a restraining order against the Nigerian Army, ordering them to stay off the land pending the final determination of the suit.

Corroborating the lawyer at his palace, the traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Godwin Okeke Arum, who almost broke down in tears, said, “It is disheartening that a whole community will be asked to quit to nowhere for no reason other than the fact that some people are wielding guns and jackboots bought with taxpayers’ money.”

“Sometime in 2015, a team of the Nigerian Army came to the community and started mounting billboards around the entire community, asking us to quit, that this is Army land. We became astonished and we engaged our legal advisor. But they are not heeding the courts or the rule of law.

“The Army has even threatened to take over my palace, the locations of our community shrines, and the ancestral home of the governor, who is the father of the state. Can you imagine that?”

Igwe Arum alleged that the Army operatives have been molesting his subjects and also demolishing ongoing projects as well as chasing investors away from the community.