A video had surfaced where Nigeria’s Minister of Works, David Umahi, openly boasted about how he ordered the forceful acquisition of a woman’s land because she challenged his actions.
In the video sighted on Tuesday, Umahi, a former governor of Ebonyi State, was heard recounting how a dispute with a female land owner escalated into a government takeover of her property by force.
According to him, the decision to acquire the land was not initially part of the plan but was triggered by the woman’s resistance.
“I didn’t want to take the woman’s remaining land, but when she started making troubles, I said they should go and acquire the land. I’m the one, not any other person else,” Umahi said in the video.
The minister’s remarks suggest that the land acquisition was carried out as a direct response to the woman’s opposition, raising concerns about abuse of power, intimidation of citizens, and the misuse of government authority.
Although Umahi did not disclose the location of the land or provide details of any legal process followed before the acquisition, his statement showed deliberate human rights abuse he and order officials in power carry out in the country.
In December 2025, SaharaReporters reported how grief became a familiar visitor to Umuchima, the most populous of the 14 communities that make up Uburu in Ebonyi State’s Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State where Umahi hails from.
Residents lamented that their troubles deepened shortly after Umahi assumed office as governor in 2015.
As he serves as Minister of Works, community members lamented that a chain of demolitions, land seizures and violent confrontations, carried out under government authority, has left them traumatised, uprooted and bereaved.
Residents alleged that forced demolitions of homes, ancestral compounds and farmlands, purportedly for government purposes, have led to severe psychological trauma, poverty and, in several reported cases, death.
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