As reactions continue to trail the demolition of buildings said to be worth over a billion naira in Umuotube community of Igbo-Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State over a court judgement, the Chief Executive Officer of Livingstone Estate, Dr Abasiubong Udofia has said he legally acquire the 29 hectares of land from the community.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Theportcitynews on Sunday, Udofia said that contrary to claims by members of the community, he bought land from families and communities in igbo-etche from 2005.
He said: “We have all the deed of assignment and we have submitted all of that to the court, with witnesses coming to the court to witness that they were part of the signatory.
“All the deed of assignment, from the families starting from Umunga phase 1 to Umuogodo, as a community, is available and we have sent them as part of the documents we tendered to the court; all of them are there. And not only did we tender those documents, signatory witnesses to those documents came to court to witness.
“Those information have been made available and you can go to court, the high court and ask for those documents, they’ll show you.
“We bought this land in 2005,2006,2007, and we are there in the community developing our property. Then in 2019, for over how many years, you now realize that this person developing this land does not have deed of conveyance. Is that a story or a fairytale? From 2005, to 2019.
“The idea is that, we all know that these people are land grabbers; if I want to list to you the number of properties that they have entered. For me, they are a shame and I want you to put this on record. They are a shame to Rivers State because these people are targeting properties that belong to non-indegenes, and I’m going to list them to you.
“Then, in igbo-etche, we had trinity place; they entered there, they are in court now. Prime estate phase 1 to 4, they are in court now. They entered diamond estate, entered Eden garden, Imperial garden, even the Shell acquisition by the Igbo-etche junction, they entered”.
“The government mega trend palm view estate, which was what brought all of us there, these land grabbers, Nkemakolam and his group entered there. They sold people’s houses that were there already. They sold the land people bought from government, with C of O. They even entered into an estate a former governor built. What are we talking about? The public, government know about these people; so, all of these people did not have deed of assignment or deed of conveyance from people they bought from, and all of this happened in 2019, 2018 and 2020. All these properties I’m telling you were done in 2003-2006”.
Udofia noted further that when he bought land from Umuotube, those whom he said are now dragging the land in court were not even qualified to be among elders taking decisions because they were small boys.
On the accusation of illegally demolishing their properties, he said “Nobody illegally demolished any property, court gave us judgement; the high court gave us judgement on our property that we took to them. We’re no stupid people, we are literate people and we allowed the course of the legal process to take place and my barrister is there, he’ll show you everything. We went through all the process to ensure or to make sure that there is no counter or appeal on our case. Like I said, the barrister is here and he can disclose the papers to you ,so that you can see that all the processes were done and the judiciary took that action. However, they went to impede the order that the court gave us.
On the judgement delivered by the Egwi Customary Court, he said: “Like I said, ignorance of the law is not taken for granted, we know the law. When we bought our land, we had a C of O from the government, a part from the C of O, our land is under the greater Port Harcourt, it’s not a communal land. The customary court has no jurisdiction; we will not follow them, because they have been hiding under the customary court to perpetrate their activities.
“We know the law and the court that has the competence to listen to our case, to address it. They came to the high court and brought the issue of the customary court, but they were told that the customary court does not have the competence on the property I bought.
“Secondly, we didn’t file any suit at Okehi High Court, my counsel wanted to go there but because of the security situation, we moved from that place to Port Harcourt.
“However, they went back there to go and file a live case and my council is there, Barr Austin. He informed the judge that we were not the ones that filed this case, they were the ones. We didn’t even serve them a paper, so how did they manufacture a paper? They’re a bunch of criminals because they went to that court and manufactured a paper.
“We have a judgement, my lawyer will show you. When he went there and told the judge that we were not the ones that filed this case. These people went behind and filed a case against themselves, we were not responsible, my lawyer can testify to that. The judge struck off that case, stating that it was not Livingston that filed the case” .
