KEMA CHIKWE'S HUSBAND AND NEATO C'S DAD IN LAND DISPUTE

Chief Herbert Chikwe, husband to popular politician and PDP Women Leader Dr. Mrs. Kema Chikwe, and father to award winner rap artiste, Naeto C, has been locked in a fierce land dispute with the family of Dr. Boniface Njoku both of Umuakuru in Umuakaliukwu Emekuku autonomous community in Imo State.

Dr. Chiedum Njoku

Both parties have been battling over a land located at Uhu Ulo/Uhu-Egbelu behind Unuofor Umuakuru in the aforementioned community.

According to one of the late doctor’s son Dr. Chiedum who spoke to the press, he said after his father’s death, Chief Chikwe began to familiarise himself with the said land claiming he had bought it from a member of the community way back in 1989.

                                                                           

Chief Herbert Chikwe

But the Njoku’s wouldn’t hear any of it and did not make a fuss either as they stayed calm hoping that the issue would die off but to their surprise when Chief Chikwe discovered that that the children of late Dr. Njoku were not based in the state, decided to capitalise on that as he encroached into the land having only Dr. Njoku’s widow to contend with.

Continuing Dr. Chiedum said that one day he got a call that Chief Chikwe had used bulldozers to clear the piece of land which had more than 150 cash crops and trees planted on it with the claim that it was his land and did not want anyone to farm on it again.

Dr. Chiedum disclosed that this move forced him and his younger brother to come home as they had to react in a hurry by calling on Mmii Orie, which is the elder’s council to look into the matter and in two days the elders delivered judgment based on the evidence they had before them and the judgment was in favour of the Njoku’s as the original owners of the land.

He further said that they were advised to build a perimeter fence round the land in order to protect it and avoid further trespass after which they paid some local boys to watch over the land in the process countering Chief Chikwe’s method of using forceful means through the local boys to scare away indigent widows from their lands.

The medical doctor also stressed that his father's brother who is the Eze(King) of the community, Eze C. C. Njoku, did not deem it fit to reconcile both parties but preferred to support Chief Herbert as he made attempts to illegally dissolve the elders council that was overseeing the matter.

We discovered from grapevine that the romance between Chief Herbert and the Eze is due to the goodies the Eze receives from Chief Herbert plus the monies he receives from the Chief for his several trips abroad.

According to Dr. Chiedum, Chief Chikwe not pleased with the judgment  went ahead to appeal to the same Mmie Orie that had judged their case and brought his own document which was just a piece of document.

A village source disclosed that what Mmie Orie does when a case is appealed is to revisit the case in order to discover loose ends in a particular matter.

Furthermore, Dr. Chiedum disclosed that the Mmie Orie during the appeal had a thorough review of the matter as the case took several weeks to get judgment which led to the elders scheduling July 18, 2015 as a day to deliver judgment.

He said that just last week, he received a court summons to appear at the Owerri High Court on Tuesday 21^st July, 2015 as Nze Chikwe had taken the matter to the judiciary. Notwithstanding, the judgment took place on the given date with all parties present except for Chief Chikwe who sent a representative.

The elders resolved that since Chief Herbert Chikwe was unable to produce original copies of his agreement paper but preferred to serve them a mutilated paper that only showed the date 1989 and there was nobody to attest that he was farming on the land on behalf of Chief Chikwe whereas the Njoku’s had all the originals documents of the land intact and had enough witnesses, who attested to their claims over the land were legitimate and there was no reason to prolong the matter.

They noted that since Chikwe’s agreement read Uhu Ekearukwu while Njoku’s agreement read Uhu Ulo/Uhu-Egbelu, it will then be insensitive not to rule in favour of the Njoku’s.

Dr. Chinedum appealed to the peace loving wife of Chief Herbert Chikwe, Dr. Kema Chikwe to come to his aid as she is known for her good sense of judgement.

Efforts by Dike Philip Blog to hear from Chief Herbert Chikwe’s representative yielded no result as he declined to comment on the matter.