Fresh tension erupted Friday morning at Victory Estate, Rumuosi, along Port Harcourt International Airport Road, as residents reported yet another invasion by armed men allegedly backing a notorious land-grabbing syndicate.
The attackers linked to a certain army colonel and others stormed the area under heavy police escort.
Residents expressed outrage that the same police officers accompanying the suspects had previously charged them to court, accusing them of lying, after the community petitioned the Inspector General of Police alleging compromise by the then Rivers State Commissioner of Police.
According to residents, the syndicate, in collusion with operatives of the Rivers State Police Command, is seeking to unlawfully seize over 4,000 plots of land, destroying perimeter fences, demolishing structures, and assaulting lawful owners. The group is said to brandish a customary court judgment awarding them about 100 plots in Rumuagholu, not Rumuosi.
A Rivers State Surveyor General’s report dated June 11, 2025 (Ref. RSS/129/T2/121), after geospatial analysis, confirms the court judgment site lies outside Victory Estate. Yet, residents allege it is being used as a pretext to intimidate and dispossess them.
Eyewitnesses claim the invaders often arrive with suspected armed cultists, repeatedly attacking the estate at least five times in recent months. Locals maintain the land belongs to the Rumuosi people, while the alleged grabbers are from neighboring Rumuagholu.
Fearing the situation could spiral into deadly violence, the Victory Estate community is urgently appealing to the Rivers State Government and the Inspector General of Police to intervene and avert what they describe as a “pending bloodbath.”
At press time, residents remained under siege.
