Dear Governor,
LAND GRABBING MENACE IN RIVERS STATE AND THE CALL FOR EXECUTIVE ACTION
As burning as the subject of this letter is, I can hardly begin to discuss it without first congratulating you on your return to office as Governor of Rivers State following the six months of emergency rule imposed on the State by Mr. President as a measure to curtail growing tension and acrimony that nearly consumed the State.
Within the six months you were away, a lot has happened, and the State has had its fair share of retrogression, insecurity, vice and crime, abandonment of critical infrastructural projects, and total absence of governance. However, of particular interest to me and great concern to several Rivers indigenes and residents is the incessant and criminal business of land grabbing in the State that has dispossessed innocent Rivers people of their hard-earned properties thereby creating fear, investment apathy, communal crises and negative corporate identity in and for the State.
Your Excellency, your first and foremost constitutional obligation as Chief Executive of our State, is the sacred duty of protecting lives and properties at all cost. Sadly, the activities of these land grabbers have become a clog in the wheel of progress in this direction and only a combination of radical and strong willed executive action can break the strong cabal of land grabbers plundering the town, sacking lawful occupants and owners of lands in broad daylight and demonstrating the highest level of theft and brigandage.
Although the illegal activities of these heartless and inhumane land grabbers has been in existence before your administration, however, their operations and actions have reached a record high in recent times, inflicting unbearable pains, losses and emotional torture which in several cases has led to heart attack and eventual death of their helpless victims.
These corporate thieves disguising as Real Estate Companies have their syndicates in government, judiciary, police, military and the very same communities they choose to pillage and rape of their lands and heritage, making them powerful and even more deadly for an individual or even community that have been violated and plundered to confront them and seek justice anywhere. At the snap of their fingers, a court order dispossessing a legitimate land owner of his land without any prior hearing appears; security operatives provide them with covering, helping them intimidate their victims; their point men in the target communities provide them with all necessary information including soft targets while their contacts in government guarantees them of protection. This well-organized and highly dangerous criminal architecture is what several innocent indigenes and residents of the State contend with every single day with no success at recovering the properties forcefully taken from them.
Sir, I am afraid to inform you that at the current rate, if your government fails to take any decisive and immediate step towards completely eradicating this evil and growing menace that is ripping innocent citizens of their hard-earned properties and investments, and sabotaging government efforts at restoring the the trust and confidence of investors, our dear State may soon be plunged into multiple communal crises, civil unrest, heightened insecurity, theft and cultism as citizens are now likely to resort to self-help and other means available to them to fight back or settle scores with their oppressors.
In recent operations, these agents of darkness masquerading as real estate gurus have dispossessed people of their developed properties. There are instances where families have been rendered homeless by these land grabbers who break into people’s homes and properties with fictitious court orders and bulldozers bringing people’s life achievements down before their very eyes. Some people have been mercilessly attacked, wounded, maimed, and even killed in the attempt to dispossess them of their properties in connivance with local operators, courts, and security operatives.
As you read this now Your Excellency, thousands of your people, Rivers people who voted you into office are helpless and now leave in fear of been dispossessed of their legitimate properties by these criminals in high places. The very same ordinary Rivers men and women who have stood firmly by you are the actual victims of this ‘elite crime’ and the government they supported and stood by cannot save them from the grips and oppressions of this salvage land grabbers.Your Excellency Sir, the onus and burden are both on you to help these helpless Rivers people recover their lost properties and eventually stamp out the activities of land grabbers from our dear State before our our State becomes an Estate for sale!
I urge you, Sir, to add the total eradication of land grabbing to your list of achievements as Governor of Rivers State. Some LGA Chairmen are already taking the lead in this direction. I must commend the LGA Chairmen of Etche and Obio/Akpor, Hon. Chima Njoku and Hon Dr. Gift Worlu, respectively, for taking a pro-people stance against land grabbers in their various LGAs. While the LGAs are doing their bit at combating this ravaging monster that may soon put the entire State in the pockets of few strangers, the State Government owes Rivers people a duty to strengthen the local governments in their efforts to ward off this marauding corporate thieves.
As a matter of urgency, your government must take very drastic and proactive measures to arrest the situation and bring perpetrators to book. The public must know these offenders and violators and ensure that their several business ventures littered across the State established from the proceeds of evil are closed down to serve as a deterrent to others who may be nursing the thoughts of venturing into same or similar enterprise.
I urge Your Excellency to set up and personally lead a task force against land grabbers and their affiliates operating anywhere within Rivers State. This approach is to ensure that the integrity of the efforts and commitment of government to fight this highly criminal and financially equipped cabal is not weakened and compromised. Only through decisive and radical actions can the activities of these land grabbing monsters be checked and halted.
Once again, Your Excellency, I welcome you back to the Brick House as you resume your duty as the Chief Security Officer of our dear State. It is my expectation and that of thousands of Rivers people that you move quickly to nip the sad issue of land grabbing in the bud before we all become slaves in our own land!
Yours in service to Rivers State,
Marshal Israel,
27th September 2025.