The saying that, the mills of justice grind slowly but ever steadily, played out recently, in Umuorji, Amucha, Njaba LGA of Imo state, as a man who was buried on his late brother’s land which he dubiously claimed and appropriated was exhumed by his kinsmen and re-buried in his own portion of ancestral land, with mixed reactions.
It was gathered that, late Damian Onyeriri, a former Councilor who hailed from Amucha, whose late brother, Duruaku Ezeji built a house before he died, dispossed and chased the latter’s wife and children out of the house and claimed it as his. Helpless and unable to physically confront the late husband’s brother, the wife of the rightful owner of the house relocated her children to Eziachi, Orlu LGA.
“As God would have it, shortly after the woman quietly relocated with her children, the oppressor who disposed them of their inheritance died and his wife who ought to have advised and called him to order, secretly buried him on the land in dispute, thereby claiming complete and irreversible ownership of the land. Not knowing that the wife of the rightful owner of the property was quietly seeking justice.”
It was also gathered that, shortly after the man who dispossed his late brother’s wife and children of their inheritance died, his wife brought in a male friend to live with her and the children in the house in dispute.
Continuing, our source said, when the woman whose late husband built the house eventually got a favorable verdict, “the kinsmen and the entire community who were not happy with the unjust humiliation, emotional and psychological torture she and her children were subjected to, exhumed the body of the impostor and false claimant last week and took him to his ancestral portion of land where he was reburied.”
As the photograph of how late Damian Onyeriri was exhumed and reburied went viral on the social media, our reporter who visited the community to find out exactly what happened, disclosed that “the whole exercise was borne out of passion for justice, and fairness. It was a unanimous decision taken by the kinsmen devoid of sentiments or parochial interests, to serve as a deterrent to other oppressors of like mind and inclination.”
