IGBOZURUOKE FORUM

By Boniface Alanwoko

The environs of Okpala Autonomous Community in Ngor-Okpala area council, is seething with imminent crises over Imo State government’s insistent  to acquire a large expanse of farm lands that belongs to Umuagwu, Umumahi and Okpala villages, for a purported international market project.

As a result, the people of Umumahi, who would bear the greatest brunt if the lands are acquired have staged a peaceful protest at the palace of Eze K.B. Okereke, the traditional ruler of  the area, to express their displeasure over the issue.

Since the past three weeks, the indigenes known for their peaceful demeanor are fuming with rage and anxiety at the surreptitious moves being adopted by the Okorochas’s government over its quest to acquire such a humongous expanse of land for a project they are yet to fully understand.

Expressing apprehension, some of them who are Imo State workers and pensioners queried how a government that is owing its workers and pensioners several months of wages due to the government’s claim of lack of fund would now find enough cash to execute such a gigantic project. Added to this, is the fact that, the building of a general hospital’s complex for which the same government secured land in the same area, for over three years now, has been abandoned with reptiles and hoodlums taking over the uncompleted building.

“The sincerity of this project is in doubt” said a villager who pointed to the abandoned hospital building. “If all our farm lands are taken for a market project, are we going to form on the market buildings? We don’t have much in this part of the state, except these farm lands which we depend on to feed ourselves, if they are taking away from us, how do they expect us to survive ?” declared Mr. Ndubisi Nwadaba.

Since the entire village has vowed to resist any attempt to appropriate their ancestral lands under any guise, the Imo State government should be mindful of any ugly incident that might occur if it went ahead to confiscate the Ngor-Okpala community lands for ulterior motives.