The family of the late Gabriel Sunday Igwenwanne of Issele-Azagba, Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta state, has formally accused the Delta State Government of unlawfully acquiring and reallocating portions of their ancestral land to private real estate developers under the pretext of public use.
In a letter dated September 1, 2025 and addressed to the Honourable Commissioner for Lands, legal representatives of the late Gabriel Sunday Igwenwanne family, L A. Obiorah and Co, accused the state government of ignoring repeated pleas for fair consideration during the land acquisition process and of diverting part of the property to private entities.
According to the petition, the disputed property sits at Olinnunu along the Issele-Benin Expressway and has served as the family’s primary farmland for generations.
While acknowledging that part of the property was acquired for public projects, the family alleged that the entire land has now been allocated to private developers, including Paulos Homes Ltd and FCM Cooperatives.
The petition reads in part: “Our clients are disheartened that despite their repeated appeals for fair treatment, the government has continued to allocate large portions of their only farmland to private individuals.
“As a result, the family has been left without land to farm this season, even as strangers continue to approach them, claiming to have purchased the land from the government.”
The dispute, according to documents attached to the petition and made available to journalists, dates back nearly a decade.
Earlier letters from the family’s former legal representatives—dated January 9, 2016 and July 10, 2017, detailed complaints over the destruction of economic trees and demolition of structures allegedly carried out by workers of the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing.
The letters further alleged that although a public notice of revocation of the family’s right of occupancy was reportedly published in The Pointer newspaper in December 2016, no direct service of the notice was ever made to the family, contrary to statutory requirements.
In their renewed appeal, the Igwenwanne family is requesting the release of 7.8 hectares of the acquired land to enable them to continue farming and maintain what they describe as their “only means of sustenance”
Their legal representatives warned that if the matter is not urgently addressed, the family may have no option but to initiate legal proceedings to challenge both the acquisition and the subsequent transfers to private interests.
