THREAT TO LIFE AS FORMER ENUGU STATE CHIEF OF STAFF DR UZO GRABS LAND

THREAT TO OUR LIVES ---SOS

Looming Threat to Life, Law and Order, and Bloodshed Against the Wilfred Odinwankpa Kindred of Ndibunugwu Owoloti in Iwollo of Ezeagu LGA. 

This is an SOS outcry based on imminent threat to the lives of the Wilfred Odinwankpa kindred, lands , property and myself in particular.

I am Engr Raymond Odinwankpa , the First Son of Mr & Mrs Wilfred Odinwankpa. I am from Ndibunugwu Owoloti in Iwollo which is in Ezeagu LGA.

On January 5, 2024, our security man (Harrison Jacob) in the company of our house help (Chiagozie Chiude) went to our farm to harvest some cashew fruits but were confronted by a young man who claimed that he had been instructed to harvest cashew fruits and other farm products belonging to the Wilfred Odinwankpa kindred without permission. The strange fellow threatened them, but they didn’t confront him. Unfortunately, the man’s face was not familiar to them.  According to our guard and house help. the man told them to tell us to stop wasting our time on our farmland.

This immediately triggered health crisis in my 86yr old Dad who had blood pressure issues abinitio. This is a farmland that belongs to the Odinwankpa Wilfred kindred and has been unilaterally enjoyed by them for over 65yrs.  My father quickly informed me of this development, and I visited home towards evening same day.

I then went into our farm myself on the same evening to see if I could identify the person if he was still there. 

To my shock and utter fear, I met three masked men instead. I guess they saw me before I observed them. Though filled with fear I mustered courage to ask them who they were, and they shouted that I should disappear or lose my life. I was about making a run for my life when one of them made comments that warranted my making this distress SOS call. He boasted that our use of our land for many years has ended and I should put it at the back of my mind. 

He said that he is not afraid to tell me that the Umuonyechieze  youths of my village were led by their youth chairman Uche Nnaekwe and one Okechukwu Uzoechi to visit Dr Festus Uzor , the former Chief of Staff to Enugu State Government to present him with Ram as new year gift. He said that in his address, The former Chief of Staff asked them to harvest any of our farm produce at will and if any member of the Odinwankpa Wilfred kindred should resist, they should beat the person mercilessly even if it leads to fatality.  They said I should tell my Dad to hands off his land unless he wants to lose the remaining few months of his  life .

The  second fellow who looked a bit shorter than the first speaker mockingly told me that  Dr Festus Uzor asked them and all youths to troop out en-mass on the 17th of January  because he (Dr Festus Uzor) has arranged for bulldozer that will arrive with plane cloths police men for forceful felling of our cashew plants and bulldozing of roads through this land that belongs to the  Wilfred Odinwankpas. He assured them that any intervention from any member of Wilfred Odinwankpa kindred will meet with unthinkable response. When I wanted to speak, he flew cutlass in my direction and being that I already was threading backwards from them, I narrowly escaped it and ran off. I made sure not to sleep in the village that evening. 

I am taking this threat seriously because our lives are involved and also because as we speak since that 2nd of January , persons have been daily spotted stealing our farm products fearlessly though we warned our guard not to confront them because we didn’t want breach of peace or blood shed  or injury .This fearless and emboldened pilferage of our products which has never happened for over 65yrs of our land usage confirmed to me, that all that the three faceless men alleged are correct and are already happening and my parents and all members of the Wilfred Odinwankpa kindred are at risk now.

Another precursor to these events occurred on the 2nd of Jan just after new year when over 50 members of the Umuonyechieze youths of my village , led by Chairman Uche Nnaekwe, trespassed onto our cashew plantation, marking points with cement blocks. This action is suspicious and  a precursor to total collapse of peace and security in this part of our state . 

Though we live in fear now, we are in utter shock because the former Chief of Staff, Dr Festus Uzor has hitherto , throughout his political career not behaved or spoken or acted as alleged by these faceless fellows who confronted me. He as a matter of fact sank a durable borehole in my village . It is so sad that he is linked to such unfortunate threats to our lives when the Odinwankpa Wilfred kindred have clearly never had any faceoff with him or wronged him in any way. I believe that only him will explain what changed .

However , the heart of a man is best known to him. Suffice to say to whoever reads this distress report that we now know that if anything happens to any blood of the Odinwankpa Wilfred kindred or our farmlands, the first port of call will definitely be Dr Festus Uzor, Engr Okechukwu Uzoechi (his brother) , Uche Nnaekwe (the Youth chairman ) and other members of Umuonyechieze youths who will soon be investigated if this danger escalates to loss of lives or anything in our farmland.

---Engr Raymond Odinwankpa 

For the Wilfred Odinwankpa Kindred