A fresh crisis is unfolding in Akpugo, Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, as the Umuedenwoko family and Cooperative Worldwide accuse their traditional ruler, along with certain unnamed government officials, of obstructing the enforcement of a long-standing court judgment delivered in their favour.
Speaking with journalists, the group’s legal representative, Gabriel Oforma Agbo, said his clients had spent more than 13 years in court fighting to reclaim their rights over the 299-hectare Ngene-Ogbugbo farmland.
He revealed that the Umuedenwoko Cooperative had “lawfully acquired the land since 1978 under a customary right of occupancy,” adding that they had since developed it with palm plantations, economic trees and other agricultural ventures.
“This land was properly acquired from the old Anambra State, issued with customary right of occupancy, equivalent to having a Certificate of Occupancy. They have paid ground rent since 1978 and invested heavily on the land,” Agbo explained.
According to him, tensions escalated after the Ugwuafor autonomous community was created, prompting the traditional ruler to assert ownership over lands belonging to various villages.
“The monarch decided to claim that because he is the traditional ruler of the community, he automatically became the owner of all lands belonging to these villages. In law and in fact, that is wrong,” he stated.
Agbo further alleged that the monarch authorized the allocation of about 35 hectares of the disputed farmland to the Nigerian Police Force for the establishment of a proposed Police College, even though the rightful owners were not properly compensated as stipulated by the Land Use Act.
“We are not saying government cannot take land. But here is a land already developed by local corporators who should be encouraged. Instead of compensating them, the Igwe moved in with machines, destroyed economic trees,” he said.
He noted that following the lengthy legal dispute, Justice A.O. Anidi delivered a judgment in June 2023 in favour of the Umuedenwoko family, and pointed out that none of the key parties, including the Inspector General of Police, the Commissioner of Police and relevant Divisional Police Officers, filed an appeal against the verdict.
To reinforce their demands, the community addressed an open letter to Governor Peter Mbah, accusing their traditional ruler of “sponsoring communal conflicts, misleading government agencies and manipulating political institutions” to block their access to the land.
In the letter dated November 4, 2025, the group lamented that the monarch sought to get the Enugu State House of Assembly to initiate a panel of inquiry into “a judgment that had already been delivered by a competent court.”
“Our clients wonder why your government fails to consider the scandalous attitudes of the said traditional ruler whose actions would ordinarily be considered sacrilegious,” the letter, signed by their lawyer, stated.
They appealed to the governor to set up a judicial panel to look into what they called the “multiplicity of judgments” and to scrutinize the roles allegedly played by government officials in actions aimed at undermining the courts.
