Anambra to amend law to criminalize land grabbing

By Phil Okose Onitsha

In its bid to criminalize incessant land grabbing being experienced in Anambra State, the State Government said Tuesday during its Executive Council Meeting, ECM, that it would immediately seek for an amendment to criminalize land grabbing in the State.

This was part of resolutions at the Anambra State Executive Council Meeting, held at Government House, Awka.

In a press release signed and issued to newsmen shortly after the ECM, the Commissioner for Information, Hon. Paul Nwosu, stated that, “It has come to the attention of ANSEC that the lands of many community secondary and primary schools have been massively encroached on by some communities and developers”.

He pointed out that it is unacceptable and that government is seriously looking to recover these portions of land, adding that as part of measures to achieve this within the ambits of the law, government is seeking to quickly amend land laws so that land grabbing will be criminalized.

He explained further that having discovered that some native doctors provide charms with which gunmen operate, it has become necessary to enumerate and register them as practitioners, categorised into herbalists and spiritualists.

“While government appreciates the fact that some of them add value to health care, it is also not unaware that they have helped to imbue these criminals with the dare-devil confidence that has driven them into committing despicable crimes as kidnapping, extortion of ransom, beheading, etc. Where they are found culpable in such crimes, it will be easy to fish them out from the register.