The Onitsha Traditional Council, also known as Ime Obi, has officially requested the Nigeria Correctional Services (NCS) to vacate its facility located in the city.
The council claims that the lease agreement between the stateand the correctional centre has come to an end and thus requires the NCS to relinquish the premises.
In a statement issued by the Traditional Council, representing the Obi of Onitsha, Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, and signed by his Chief of Staff, Chief Osita Anionwu, it was stated that the land on which the facility currently stands was originally granted to the colonial government on a 99-year lease during the precolonial era.
The Traditional Council further noted that the lease has now reached its expiration and that the community is not interested in another renewal.
The NCS was also accused of wrongfully occupying community land.
The Onitsha Traditional Council thereby urged the correctional agency to dismantle any structures erected on their lands and restore the pathways leading to the different Onitsha shrines in the area.
The statement titled: Ime Obi calls for return of lands illegally occupied by Nigeria Correctional Services reads in full.
Onitsha, July 14, 2023: The Onitsha Traditional Council (Ime Obi) is insisting that the Nigeria Correctional Services should put a stop to its appropriation of parcels of land belonging to Onitsha families, and that these should revert to the owners. The parcels of land, properties of the Umudei quarters, lyiawu quarters, and Okposi Eke section of Ogboli Eke quarters are in the Akpaka area of Onitsha. Some facilities of the correctional services agency are located on them.
Ime Obi stated that despite the expiration of a lease of agreement in respect of the parcels of land, which hitherto were used as farmlands by the Onitsha families, the Nigeria Correctional Services has continued to lay claim to them. Chief Osita Anionwu, Ike Akatakwuani/ Chief of Staff, Ime Obi, explained that “by a lease agreement signed by the Obi of Onitsha acting for and on behalf of the chiefs of Onitsha with the Colonial Government dated July 22, 1910, Onitsha leased the land to the Colonial Government for a term of 99 years with no renewal clause”. Anionwu added, ” with the expiration of the lease in 2009, the Nigeria Correctional Services took unilateral action to scuttle the non-renewal of the 1910 lease agreement, a development which is unacceptable to the Onitsha community.”
The Onitsha Traditional Council observed that beyond the occupation of the parcels of land for which the lease agreement had expired, the Nigeria
Correctional Services has gone ahead to encroach on adjoining parcels of land including that which has been set aside for the National Maritime Institute, a federal government agency under the Nnamdi Azikiwe University. It called on the correctional agency to remove all structures placed on these lands, including reestablishing the thoroughfares to the various Onitsha shrines in the vicinity.
Signed:
Chief Osita Anibnwu,
Ike Akatakwuani/ Chief of Staff
