The Enugu State Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, Dr Victor Nnam has resigned from office.
Nnam was embroiled with controversies of allegations of land deals, both from private individuals, corporate entities and the state House of Assembly in the recent time.
But the Commissioner in his letter of resignation sent to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi said he was not happy for the removal of the professional heads of departments in his ministry which he alleged was on a punitive ground.
Nnam also alleged that the state Governor, Ugwuanyi, refused to approve his proposal for a Geometric Information System, GIS, land administration which he said would have stamped out land grabbers and created investors’ confidence in Enugu state.
‘However, the reason for my resignation is the recent removal of the professional heads of departments under me on the punitive ground for simply doing their jobs diligently. My conscience can no longer allow me to serve your administration while those innocent professional senior civil servants are punished for doing the right thing.’
‘I hereby resign my appointment as the commissioner for Lands and Urban Development Enugu state with effect from today, Friday 29th October 2021, and submit the black Prado SUV,’ Nnam wrote.
Reacting to the development, the Enugu Land owners association expressed happiness about the development while declaring that the outgoing commissioner was using his office to perpratate fraudulent dealings. In their communique obtained by Africa Today News, New York, they wrote:
It has come to the knowledge of the above named concerned group that the Enugu State Commissioner for lands, in the person of Hon. Victor Nnam has resigned his appointment. Citing removal of professional heads of department under his office as reasons.
We as Concerned Stakeholders hereby wish to let the general public, the Executive Governor of Enugu State and indeed the members of the Enugu State House of Assembly to know that the so called professionals as described by the now former Commissioner are nothing but stooges which the run away Commissioner uses in perpetrating his shoddy dealings under his ministry.
These are merely the staff which the embattled Commissioner arrogantly posted to his office without the knowledge and approval from the office of the Head of Service of the State.
In other words, they are simply his land racketeering agents.
We as a group is well aware that there’s an ongoing investigation on the said Commissioner bordering on surreptitious dealings, police investigations and Court cases, etc.
We are also aware that there have been indictments on the commissioner’s so called professionals under his office which necessitated their redeployment to other ministries of the State Government to avoid causing further embarrassments to the State Government.
We hereby submit that the resignation of Surv. Victor Nnam as the Enugu State Commissioner For Lands is long awaited and overdue.
This is because his tenure as land Commissioner in Enugu State is rife with unimaginable proportion of crises, illegal land revocations and re-allocations of same to his cronies illegally.
We are therefore joining our voices to that of the general public to call on the Executive Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to institute a judicial panel of enquiry to look into the complaints of innocent land owners who have suffered untold wickedness from the subterfuge of the now resigned Commissioner.
It has been our sincere believe and conviction that the man cannot be allowed to escape justice by the mere resignation of his appointment.
Furthermore, we are pleading that all lands which he illegally revoked should be returned to the rightful owners.
In addition to the above, we plead that all the crises of allocations and revocations under his tenure be judiciously addressed, since the man is overtly fond of acting without the Governor’s approval, thus creating a bad name for the State Government.
We hereby urge the State Government to seize this ample opportunity to investigate and bring the man to justice, even as we are also aware that there is an ongoing investigation on the Commissioner and his cohorts in the ministry on land racketeering.
Finally, we are calling on the relevant committees in the Enugu State House of Assembly to urgently facilitate and ensure the implementation of the land use act in Enugu State.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK