While he lived, all Okorie Agwu wanted was a place he could call his own. And long before his retirement, he had paid N200,000 for two-and-a-half plots of land in Abiriba, his hometown in Abia State. However, what he thought was safety soon got him entangled with Mang Ifegwu, a Nigerian based in the US, who encroached on his property and built a vacation house on it. Okorie suddenly died on July 13 after one of the numerous meetings held to resolve the dispute.
Rose Agwu, a medical doctor, had just stepped out of the hospital where she works in Lagos to visit a nearby shopping mall when her phone rang on the evening of July 13.
The caller was David Agwu, her brother, and he was bearing unpleasant news: their father, Prince Okorie Agwu, had died.
Rose told FIJ her world came crashing down instantly. Even though her father had died on the morning of that day, she didn’t find out until about 7 pm. She began to wonder what could have killed him.
“I was in a shopping mall and on duty at the hospital that day when my brother called to say daddy had died,” she told FIJ. “He wasn’t sick. He had an underlying ailment which was being managed. They told us that he slept and just didn’t wake up.”
Rose explained that her father didn’t die in his house; he was on a visit to Abiriba in Ohafia local government area (LGA) to resolve an issue that he had confronted for his last two decades on earth.
‘MANG IFEGWU MADE MY FATHER CRY’
According to Rose, Mang Ifegwu, a Nigerian based in the United States, had forcefully taken Agwu’s two-and-a-half plots of land in Abiriba and built a vacation home for his family in Nigeria. This was despite a court ruling ordering Ifegwu to vacate the land and pay compensation to Agwu.
“They suffered my father because of this land and he cried because of it. My father is a strong man, but they made him cry.
“All his toil and efforts at repossessing a property he bought with his hard-earned money were frustrated. They bullied my father. They bullied him because they have money and think he doesn’t.”
READ ALSO: Rowland Opara Demolishes Lagos Ship Agent’s Inherited Property Without Her Consent
‘ARREST’ BY ‘BAKASSI BOYS’
In April 2007, when Okorie Agwu bought his first and only landed property at his hometown in Ali Umuji Nnenkporo, Uzo Ndi Okoronta Amaja, Abiriba, Ohafia Local Government Area (LGA), he intended to prepare for this future.
He was 53 at the time and was working as a clearing and forwarding agent in Lagos. He had a young family of six and wanted to leave them a legacy.
“He wanted to do something for himself and his future,” Rose told FIJ. “He was getting a lot of money and wanted some form of investment, so he bought two-and-a-half plots of land in our hometown.”
After Okorie bought this property at N200,000 from one Odu Ogbu Okpan, who inherited the land from his father, he returned for Lagos. Before leaving, he demarcated the property with Beacon numbers ABAB 19371, ABAB 19392, ABAB 19388, ABAB 19389 and ABAB 19390.
A month later, he was back on the land. To keep it land active, Okorie planted economic crops such as coconuts, avocado pears, mangoes and oranges on the land. Again, he returned to Lagos, assuming all was well.
“My father thought he had secured the land with all he did on it and simply left for Lagos without thinking any issues would come up on his property,” Rose said.
The following year, while he was in Lagos, he learnt that someone had encroached on his property and was erecting a structure. Though he sent a cease and desist order, he didn’t realise the depth of what was to come until Bakassi Boys, the popular name of a thug group in Abia State, picked him up from his house in the state.
According to Rose, they did not spare her pregnant mother either. They took both of them away without declaring why or where they were being taken.
“He got the land in 2007. Sometime later, we heard someone was building on it. We don’t know this person from anywhere. They’re not related to us,” she told FIJ.
“So my dad sent a notice to stop building, my dad had travelled then, so there wasn’t any follow-up after he sent the cease-and-desist. Unknown to him, they continued despite that.
“At some point, this was when I was still quite young, they sent the Bakassi boys to our house to come and take my dad.
“They started asking my parents questions, but my parents didn’t know who Ifegwu and his family were. They had never met them. My parents showed them the land documents, and eventually, they were released.”
A PRETENTIOUS PLOY AT PEACE
By August 2008, Okorie had his lawyers write to Ifegwu. The order was simple: desist from the land and stop any further activities on it. At the time, Ifegwu had removed the beacon pillars used to demarcate the land, destroyed the economic crops and was starting to evacuate the land to erect a building.
Before issuing this notice through Abba Awosley Otisi, his lawyer, he had first reported the matter to the Ameke Youth Movement in Abiriba, but the meeting yielded no fruit.
Upon receiving the letter from Otisi, Ifegwu sued for peace, pleading for time and allowance to repurchase the land and pay its worth.
“Several meetings followed, including one scheduled at Spelling Garden Hotel, No. 48 Ikot-Ekpene Road, Ogbor-Hill, Aba, but the defendants, despite initiating it, failed to attend,” Okorie’s statement to the court in 2016 reads.
For six years, Ifegwu negotiated for an out-of-court settlement with Okorie, but it soon turned out that all he needed was time to erect his buildings on the property.
Even when the matter was reported before the Enachioken-in-Council Customary Tribunal, Eze Kalu Kalu Ogbu, the Enachioken of Abiriba, demanded that the issue be settled amicably.
Rose told FIJ that in the midst of all these, her father still hoped that the matter would be resolved amicably; however, things took a new turn after Ifegwu claimed that Madam Oyediya Okorie, Okorie’s mother, had permitted him to take over the property.
WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN MADAM OKORIE AND IFEGWU?
Court documents showed that Ifegwu had claimed that Madam Oyediya had transferred her son’s property as settlement for a failed land deal and that Okorie knew about it.
He also claimed that she had allowed him to take over Okorie’s property with a thumbprint of her finger. But how could this have been possible when the said thumprinting hapened four months before Okorie had even bought his land?
Ifegwu didn’t stop there; he insisted that Okorie’s mother and Chief Lekwa Agbai, her brother, had facilitated this land transfer to him on December 12, 2006.
All of these happened without Okorie’s consent or permission.
The certified true copy (CTC) from the court revealed that he was unaware of any land transaction involving his mother, her brother, and Ifegwu.
He stated that during arbitration before the Usukpam-in-Council, Agbai admitted to selling three plots of land at Ali Ndi Oriri Layout, Abiriba, and advised his sister to provide another piece of land as a bailout after the transaction went wrong, but at no point was his own land used to compensate Ifegwu.
Also, his mother never involved him in the Usukpam arbitration, but she confirmed that she gave the defendants two plots of land with Survey Plan No. HAS/AB 24/2008, attached to the Usukpam-in-Council judgment.
These new plots given to Ifegwu were different from Okorie’s own in name, size, shape, position and location.
In fact, the land given to Ifegwu was situated at Ogbele Uzo Ndi Okoronta Ameke, Abiriba, rather than Ali Umuji Nnenkporo, Uzo Ndi Okoronta Amaja, Abiriba, where Okorie’s sits.
Although Okorie’s mother died in October 2015, she witnessed the early stages of Ifegwu’s encroachment into her son’s land.
But Ifegwu insisted he would rather take the one belonging to Rose’s father forcefully.
Rose, now teary, said that after buying time in the name of peace, Ifegwu claimed he had a right to the property as it was shown to him by Madam Oyediya, her grandmother.
“Till she died, my grandmother insisted that she never showed or sold the land to them. Their entire claims on this have all been lies,” Rose told FIJ.
“He claimed my grandmother showed him my father’s land, but what they were doing was trying to link it to another piece of land my grandmother was involved with, but that was an entirely different property.
“My grandmother was not even the one who sold them the land they claimed had issues; she wasn’t the main person.
“Ifegwu just felt he could bully my father with no consequences, and he did for a long time, that even the court judgment barely changed anything.”
A WIN FOR AGWU, BUT MORE HARASSMENT FROM IFEGWU
In 2016, Okorie filed a lawsuit at the Abia High Court, and during the proceedings, it was revealed that as of 2012, Ifegwu had completed the boys’ quarters and moved in.
On June 20, 2019, three years after the case began, Rose told FIJ that Ifegwu arrived at the court with dancers and musicians, expecting a favourable ruling.
“They came with dancers and musicians, believing that the court would be on their side.”
But they were shocked as Justice Okerenke ruled in her father’s favour. Not only that, he also ordered that N500,000 be awarded to him for unlawful trespass and ordered that Ifegwu and his agents immediately and permanently stop entering the land.
READ ALSO: Abdullah Almiskin Took Abuja Resident’s N22m for Leisure Court Land. Property Was Never His
“Having held as I now have, I hereby make the following Orders:
- A Declaration that the 1st Claimant is the Owner and so entitled to the Statutory Right of Occupancy over and in respect of the piece or parcel of land, together with the building thereon known as and called Ali Umuji Nnemkporo Uzo Ndi Okoronta Amaja Abiriba in the Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State of Nigeria, measuring approximately 988.672 square metres and more particularly described and delineated in Survey Plan Number VEN/AS 1932/2003 with Beacon Numbers ABAB 19371, ABAB 19392, ABAB 19388, ABAB 19389 and ABAB 19390, and thereon verged RED annexed to the Deed of Irrevocable Power of Attorney dated 5th day of April, 2007 and registered as No. 68 at Page 68 in Volume 863 of the Lands Registry in the Office at Umuahia, Abia State, IS HEREBY GRANTED,” Justice Okerenke ruled.
- The sum of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) is awarded as General Damages in favour of the Claimants against the Defendants, jointly and severally, for unlawfully trespassing into the said portion of Ali Umuji Nnemkporo Uzo Ndi Okoronta Amaja Abiriba land of the Claimants.
- The Defendants, their servants, agents, workmen and/or privies are hereby perpetually restrained from further trespass into the said portion of the Ali Umuji Nnemkporo Uzo Ndi Okoronta Amaja Abiriba land of the Claimant.
- I make no Order as to cost.“
OKORIE MAY BE DEAD, BUT THE FIGHT GOES ON
Rose, her siblings and her mother intend to continue fighting for their father’s honour.
“Any sensible person would know not to build on land they don’t own or have documents for,” she said.
“These people live in the US, so converting naira to dollars and pushing the case became easier for them. During court proceedings, they lied that my dad sold the land to them, which is false. He wasn’t even present when they claimed he sold it. They were trying to link it to another land that my grandmother was involved with.
“Despite having a court judgment in his favour, my dad was still willing to settle. They mocked him. They even asked if he’d ever seen N1.5 million before. It was insulting. My dad used to be a successful clearing agent.
“The day before my dad died, he had a meeting with them, trying to settle the matter. That was the last we heard. He had travelled for a burial. He lived in Aba but travelled to Ariba.
“The last call on his phone was with their middleman. The next day, they found him dead in his room in the village. He had reportedly been purging earlier, but no one suspected anything. Around 2 p.m., someone checked and found him dead.”
NOT LETTING GO
“But we won’t let it go,” she continued.
“They bullied my father. We’ll fight for him and for justice. My dad was travelling for appeals in neighbouring states in his old age because there was no one else to go.
“He stayed in a rented apartment in Aba, and when he heard that they had moved into the house, even after the judgment, he cried bitterly. I had never seen him that vulnerable.
“I feel so disrespected on his behalf. They bullied him until his death. And even now, two of his lawyers have died under mysterious circumstances. It is scary.”
‘IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO US, HOLD MANG IFEGWU RESPONSIBLE‘
“That’s why we’re telling this story, so if anything happens to us, the public knows who to hold accountable. We’re not backing down. We’re going to change the administrator and continue this fight. My dad’s honour must be preserved. Justice must be served.”
Rose told FIJ that her father is yet to be buried, as where he could have been his resting place has now been hijacked by someone else.
MANG IFEGWU TO FIJ: ‘YOU’RE HEADING FOR UNEMPLOYMENT’
FIJ first contacted Mang Ifegwu and his wife, Nnenna Ifegwu, via Facebook on July 28, but there was no response.
FIJ then sent a message to Ifegwu’s WhatsApp line on August 8, asking him to react to the accusations, but he called our reporter twice, eight hours after receiving the message. On each call, he did not utter a word..
When FIJ sent another reminder on Thursday August 14, he simply replied, “Look, it seems that you are heading for unemployment. Thank you so greatly.”
The post US-Based Mang Ifegwu Took Over Retiree Okorie Agwu’s Land and Built on It. What Next Now that Okorie Has Died? appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.