A pregnant woman, Mrs. Mmesoma Odili, hailing from Umuosiegbo village, Umunya in Oyi local government area of Anambra State, is deeply shattered after the loss of her pregnancy during eight days of detention at the Zone 13 Police Headquarters, Ukpo, Anambra State.
According to reports, the police detained Mmesoma when they couldn’t locate her husband amidst a land dispute in the area.
Mr. Jude Ikeanyionwu, a native of the community, expressed concern over the turmoil caused by the dispute and urged the state governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, and other stakeholders to intervene before further harm is done.
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Ikeanyionwu said: “Mmesoma’s husband is a member of the community’s vigilante group and one of those opposed to the illegal attempt to sell our communal land by some of our elders.
“When the men of Zone 13 Police came to arrest those who do not want our land to be sold since we had shared it among the various families and they could not find Mmesoma’s husband, they arrested his pregnant wife.
“For eight days she was in detention and it was during this period that she had a miscarriage and lost her three months pregnancy. The police had to let her go when she was almost dying in detention.
“The situation in our kindred now is that those who want to sell our land by force have been harassing us with police from Abuja, such that all the men in the village no longer sleep in their houses for fear of arrest.
“We have no other land, which was why a decision was taken to share the large expanse with the various families, which has been done. It is, therefore, surprising that my uncle, who was chairman of the kindred, insisted on selling the land when we and our children have no other land to lay hands on.”
