Delta: We Won’t Allow Oscar Ibru Take Over Our Land Without Fulfilling Agreements Reached With His Father, Ewu/Orah Community Warns

By John Tega
Members of Ewu/Orah Community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State, have vowed to resist the forceful takeover of their community land by Oscar Ibru, as over 1000 persons recently went to the streets on a peaceful protest to show their displeasure over Oscar’s move to lay claim to the land without fulfilling the agreement entered into with the community and his father, Michael Ibru many years ago before his demise.
Our findings show that in 1974, an agreement was made between some leaders of the community and Michael Ibru over a large piece of land where Ibru was asked to site an industry on and an annual rent fee of Ten Naira (N10) was agreed upon to be paid to the community.
According to the protesters, they were shocked to find out that Oscar Ibru who is yet to fulfill his own side of the agreement, through his lawyer, Chief B . O Asaboro vowed to bring in a signboard to place on the land and thereby attempting to lay claim to the land as owner without due process.
A leader of the community, Mr. Samson Odjiyi, the community’s Speaker, who spoke to Oasis Magazine (OM), said they have asked Oscar Ibru to come for a roundtable discussion (which he promised to do) with the community to settle the issues arising before he can be granted access to the community land.
He continued: “What his father promised to place on that land was an industry. The annual rent was not paid by his late father and if he (Oscar) must have access to the land, he must pay the total rent owed the community and tell us the kind of industry he is about to build.
“Over 1000 indigenes today turned out to join the protests. October, 2019, representatives from Oscar Ibru met with us and promised to come back to tackle the issues we raised. But just now, we saw that they brought a signboard to place here as if they own the land. We won’t allow them place their signboard in our community land until they do the needful.”
OM also spoke to the Secretary of Ewu/Orah Community, Mr. Ehaoma Harry.
Harry said that over 40 years was when the agreement was made between the leaders of the community and Michael Ibru and that the community was yet to receive any rent payment as outlined in the agreement.
He put the total rent owed the community at Five Million Naira (N5, 000, 000).
“Even if he is set to build an industry on the said land, we need to come up with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to know how many of our indigenes will be gainfully employed in the company,” he added.
He said that the community is suspecting that Oscar has a different plan for the land contrary to what the agreement states.
“We do not want a situation where he will go and plant palm trees that will then be a safe haven for Fulani herdsmen. It must be a company and if he is not ready for that then we will take our community land and do something else with it,” he stressed.
Attempts to reach Oscar Ibru proved abortive as one of his aides promised to help establish contact with his boss to enable us hear his own side of the story.
At the time of filing this report, we were still awaiting a feedback from the said aide.