By Ijeoma Umeh

From Monday, November 14, to Monday, November 21, 2022 alone, the Edo State Private Property Protection Committee headed by its Chairman, the Hon. Justice Alero Edodo-Eruaga(retired) had heard 91 cases, all bordering on issues relating to land grabbing and communal boundary disputes.

In this business, there is no social class culture. The elitists are crying as much as the ‘commoners’ over issues of land grabbing. The state government is not smiling, being a victim of land grabbing itself.

Recently, the Hon.Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Mr Chris Nekhikhare said that land grabbing in Edo State had cost Edo residents whopping #1.5bn.

The Retired Justice Eruaga sits over a Committee that is quasi-judicial in nature, with the full appurtenances of any such constituted setting anywhere in the world, and replete with members who grind as hard as they can pound in order to restore peace and harmonious living in Edo communities.

The Committee Chairman is imbued with the capacity, if the burden of evidences are heavy against them, to declare land grabbers fit to be charged to court or taken into custody.

Both petitioners and respondents, and their witnesses are daily being quizzed by this 8-member Committee, people who love humanity, yearn for peace in Edo communities, but are ready to be stern where absolutely necessary in reaching far reaching resolutions.

The Edo State Government had set up the Committee on Protection of Private Property in February 2022 to resolve issues of land disputes, particularly land grabbing, through the instrumentality of the Edo State Private Properties Protection Law 2017, a Law to prohibit forcible entry and illegal occupation of landed properties, violent and fraudulent conduct in relation to landed properties, to proscribe the collection of land based community levies , etc.

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For the state government, there is a palpable mess, and here is a veritable instrument to clean up the mess.

The Government House premises where the Committee sits daily teem with people from communities all over Edo State, both petitioners and respondents, heirs of persons who died intestate and of course, scheming land grabbers.

Their countenances only exude their anxieties, and behind that facade lies the hope of the common people to get justice, hope and anticipation for resolution of lingering land disputes as each clutch in the crook of their arms documents to be tendered as evidence, by which, they hoped, their prayers would be answered and their land tussles finally resolved.

For most of the Edo indigenous people and non indigenes alike, so much depended on the mien and disposition of the Justice Chairman, Hon. Eruaga and other sound members of her Committee.

Here is a woman of sterling reputation and professional clout whom many have come to identify as “the mouthpiece of the gods,” and the face of Justice at the end of each legitimate process to reclaim their estate or inheritance.

A widow, Kudirat Idemudia, who accompanied another widow whose case was among the 25 cases listed for Monday November 14 to be heard by the Private Property Protection Committee headed by Justice Eruaga(Retd), spoke to this writer about the confidence she has in the capacity of the Committee to resolve land disputes and in facilitating express recovery of people’s property.

“I am a widow with five children. My friend’s son is appearing before the Committee today. Some months ago, I brought a petition before this our great Justice Eruaga. The first time I appeared before her Committee, I was emotional and jittery, but surprisingly, she kept encouraging me, asking me to calm down and narrate my story. She was patient, and she took down every detail, she calmly asked me to sit down and respond to her questions and by the end of that first session, I knew I was on my way to recovering my children’s property which they inherited from my husband, their late father. Although the case was adjourned for hearing to a later date, I was happy I had taken the bold step by bringing forward a petition, without meaning to turn our family into a battle ground for household enemies. The Justice always told us that peaceful resolution of conflicts was the bases around which her Committee was set up.

“So by the time the case came up for hearing again, the Committee was clear in the resolutions reached which was signed by me and my in-laws. While both sides had nothing to lose, my children maintained their title over their inheritance. My immediate family members were happy, so also my in-laws who honestly desired to know who genuinely owned the property between two siblings, my late husband and his late elder brother. It was the methodical manner of interpretation of the wordings of the documents tendered in evidence before the Honourable Justice and members of her Committee that finally resolved the family dispute which had lingered for three years until I brought the petition before Justice Eruaga’s Committee.

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I brought my friend here now because I am also very confident that her matter will be amicably resolved since it is similar to mine, the issue of land grabbing.” The Retired school Principal stated.

The testimonies of hope continue to resonate all around.

The sitting continues, so also the cleaning.