An Owerri High Court presided over by Mr. Justice F.I. Duruoha Igwe has reserved ruling on a motion till 12th June, filed by Chief Godwin Chidi Ejim and 2 others representing the five families of Umuehieta, Avu Autonomous Community in Owerri West L.G.A, against the Imo State lands, survey and urban planning commissioner, the Attorney General, Eze B.N. Okere of Avu Community, Barr. Chris Ahumibe and the Imo State Commissioner of Police, challenging the allocation of AVU resettlement layout to those not entitled to get the allocation.
When the matter was mentioned in court the applicants lawyer D.O Agbo Esq had filed a motion for judgment arguing that the defense have not entered appearances for the past 11 months, pointing out that it was only one of the defendants/respondents, the traditional ruler was in count.
But the defense counsel then moved a counter motion urging the court to allow him file one more witness; however the applicants counsel never opposed the motion in the interest of justice, he argued.
The court then awarded N3000 cost against the defendants.
It would be recalled that in year 2004, the then Imo State governor Chief Achike Udenwa allocated some hectares of land to the AVU people and called it Avu resettlement layout and a panel was set.
Latter it was alleged that the panel allocated the lands to people who were not displaced instead of the Umuehieta village whose lands the Imo State government earlier confiscated for development and industrialization. When the Umuehieta people called for an explanation of the method of sharing no reasonable explanation was given to them hence the layout was supposed to be given to the affected families.
As a result they wrote and communicated all the relevant agencies of government and decided to seek redress in the law court.
In all, the affected families and villages have rejected the committee sharing the layout and have rejected the areas allocated so far and asking the court to declare that the layout belongs to them so that they can share it reasonably among themselves.
Finally they rejected the plots the Community Lawyer allocated to himself just after the government released the layout to the community, adding that he can never take their land with force.
