A family is making a strong claim to the disputed land hosting the Mechanic Village in Asaba, the Delta State capital.

Chairman of the Umujiaga Family Land Committee, Chief Nwabueze Enenmoh, said yesterday that the land was never given to the local government as a property but was given to mechanics during the military days when a military administrator was administering the local government in the early 1980s.

The claim is coming barely four weeks after the Delta State Government had intervened in the dispute between the National Automobile and Technical Association (NATA) and the Chairman of Oshimili South Local Government Area, Barrister Chuks John Obusom, over the ownership of the mechanic village,

Addressing journalists in a bid to clear the air over the disputed property, Chief Enenmoh, who was accompanied by other members of the Umujiaga family, said: “In 1983, the land was given then for the use of the mechanics, we did it for the development of this town and not for the use of the local government.”

While explaining the issues surrounding the land, he brought out a map bearing the pattern in which the land was shared among the children of Onaje, showing explicitly where the mechanic village belonged in the map, claiming that the land is the property of the Umujiaga family and not the local government.

“We are the owners of the land, we did not give this land to any other person but for the mechanics to use in 1983. Surprisingly, we are hearing that the local government is claiming ownership of the land. We are not happy that the land is being used for something else against the purpose for which it was meant,” he said.

Also, Patron of NATA, Engr. Francis Brown Esumai, said in 1973 when the land was allocated to the mechanic, the property was a forest, adding that nothing done in the land until 2014 when the mechanics were compelled by the state government to move to the mechanic village.

He said the police commissioner had waded into the crisis rocking the property but lasting peace is yet to come to the mechanic village.

Consequently, he said, “we have come openly to say that we are challenging the land with the local government. The local government has no right to claim ownership of the land. The land was given to mechanics since 1983. The owners of the land did not give it to the local government but to the mechanics.”

But Chairman of Oshimili South Local Government, Barrister Chuks John Obusom, had consistently said the land in dispute belongs to the council, showing with graphical evidence how the land was ceded to the council in the early 80s.

•Photo shows Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State.