Mr. Orji Kelechukwu, 54 years of age, has been charged by the Anambra State Police Command with encroaching on a piece of land owned by the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) in Onitsha, Anambra State. Orji is also being prosecuted for allegedly engaging in a manner likely to cause the breach of peace by unlawfully entering into the said NIWA land.
“That you, Orji Kelechukwu, male between March 2024 and April 3, 2025 at Niger Street Ose Waterfront, Onitsha in Onitsha Magistral District, did willfully or negligently and without the consent of National Inland Waterways Authority, used the land along the Waterfront measured about 100 meters perpendicular to the edge of both banks and thereby committed an offense punishable under section 23 (1) (a) (4) of the National Inland Waterways Authority, Act It should be recalled that Orji was arrested on Thursday in a motor park created by the Onitsha South Local Government on the land where the council area demolished properties it deemed to be illegal structures and falls on the NIWA Right of Way by a team of Navy officials from Naval Outpost Onitsha and police officers from NIWA Police Post, Bridgehead Onitsha.
It should also be recalled that some affected NIWA clients, including Lake Petroleum Limited, the property owners, went to the Federal High Court in Awka to challenge the demolition and subsequent occupation of the land by the Onitsha South Local Government, which turned it into a motor park and trading area. Mr. Nicholas Suleiman, the NIWA Area Manager for Onitsha, lamented to reporters following Orji's arrest that the council area had lost over N160 million due to the alleged illegal demolition of houses and shops on its Right of Way and the conversion of the land into a motor park and trading place through Orji.
He stated that the council boss turned down NIWA's attempts to meet with Mr. Emeka Orji, chairman of Onitsha South Local Government, to resolve some ambiguities regarding the activities of his officials in the land. “That you, Orji Kelechukwu, on the same date and place in the aforesaid Magistral District, did in a manner likely to cause the breach of peace or reasonable apprehension of a breach of peace, by entering the land which is in actual and peaceable possession of the National Inland Waterways Authority, and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 115 of the Criminal Code Cap 36 Volume II Revised Law of Anambra State of Nigeria 1991 as Orji was granted bail after pleading not guilty at the court hearing, which was presided over by His Worship C.B. Okoyeb. The case was adjourned to June 4, 2025, for further hearing.
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