Igwo Land Controversy Deepens: Emmanuel Omale Denies Allegations, Directs Legal Team to Take Action Against Accusers
By Roseline Okafor, Nasarawa.
Mr. Emmanuel Bitrus Omale, who was accused of selling large portions of land to Black Gem New Energy Limited, a Chinese mining company, has denied the allegation, describing it as baseless and urging the public to disregard it.
According to him, the allegation was meant to tarnish his image and that of his political career, just as he directed his legal team to work towards suing his accusers.
He was reacting to the allegation by some group of Igwo community elites of Agwada administrative area council, who claimed that he single-handedly sold community land without consent.They also appealed to the Nasarawa State Government to retrieve the Right of Occupancy (R of O) issued to the Chinese company for peace and unity in the community.
Omale maintains that the agreement was for the community to lease the land to Chinese people for business, not sell it. The agreement, according to him, was for 15 years, with payments to be made instrumentally after 5 years.
“I am disappointed for hearing the news that I, Omale, sold the land belonging to Igwo community. I cannot do that because the land is not for me. These people that are accusing me are the ones complicating the issues.”
He said his company is not in a position to issue R of O to anybody and preferred the complainants to bring out any documents indicating that he actually sold the land.
“This R of O or C of O is from NAGIS; they are the ones responsible for giving such certificates, not my company. If you said somebody sold your land, you have the right to go to NAGIS to find out the real issue than to be spreading false information about it.”
“All of us agreed to lease the land to the Chinese investors. I brought them to this land not to seize land of Igwo community but to do business.”
He emphasized that some of the people seen in a video were those arrested for forgery of their traditional rulers’ signatures, leading to their detention for 14 days in a correctional center.
“What they normally do is forge a document with the first-class chief that we have in Agwada, using his stamp and signature, thereby collecting money from different investors without the knowledge of the traditional rulers.”
Omale called on them to desist from such acts, reiterating that their false accusation would not deter him from performing his humanitarian service to his people but rather encourage him to bring more investors for the development of the Afo community, saying that his legal team is set to process legal action against the accusers to protect his reputation.
