• Aggrieved villagers threaten VC with juju, shrines over demolition of 100 buildings in EBSU campus
Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki
Until true respite comes, and quickly too, many residents of Okpufu village in Ntsurakpa autonomous community, Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State would remain homeless. This followed the demolition of their homes sited in the permanent site of Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki.
Recently, Governor David Umahi ordered the immediate demolition of the residential homes numbering over 100 whose owners have reportedly refused to relocate from the area despite bagging government’s compensation for more than twice.
According to Umahi, the action became necessary given that the
villagers have constituted themselves to public nuisance to the university community. He lamented also that the houses, many of which were made of mud defaced the university environment and painted the state in bad light before visitors.
But the different compensatory moneys which ran into several millions, it was alleged, were often hijacked by some stakeholders from the area who found themselves in the corridors of power.
“It may interest you to know that the administration of Senator Samuel Ominyi Egwu approved the sum of N200 million to settle the natives of Okpufu village in Ntsurakpa Izhia but some big elephants and hungry rodents within the state and the community swallowed the fund, leaving the real owners due for compensation perpetually stranded till date.
“All in all, my people are dying. Justice has not been perfected to cushion my people because all the stated amounts mentioned have not actually gotten to them.
“For an instance, while some collected N200,000 as relocation and compensation entitlement, some others went home with N1,000 or N600 as their share.
“The question is: who ‘ate’ EBSU community funds and kept the totality of people crying, wailing, dying, roasting and grudging? EFCC, DSS, over to you not thugs, gangsters, police, Civil Defence and other unknown warriors ransacking and intimidating my uninformed kinsmen,” said a community leader, Sebastine Odono.
Genesis of the trouble
Before the creation of Ebonyi State from the old Anambra State, the then Governor of the defunct state, Chief Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo, reportedly acquired the land in Okpufu for the establishment of College of Agricultural Science (CAS) campus of Anambra State University of Science and Technology (ASUTECH).
The move followed the amendment of the bill establishing the state university in 1982 which was passed to provide for the Abakaliki campus of the institution, CAS.
Although the CAS campus later took off at a temporary site near Abakaliki Rice Mill at the Waterworks axis of the metropolis, the subsequent administrations made efforts to open up the permanent site.
Between 1991 and 1993 when Dr. Icha Ituma, an indigene of Ohaukwu, became Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and later Deputy Governor of old Enugu State, the people of Okpufu were paid compensation for the land.
This payment, it was gathered, was facilitated through the efforts of an Ntsurakpa son, Prof. Ozo Nweke Ozo, who was by then, the Special Assistant to Dr. Ituma.
In 1992, Enugu State was created out of old Anambra State and a geographical entity which later became known as Ebonyi State was created out of the same Enugu in 1996.
Following this new creation, the CAS campus of what had become Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), morphed into a full-fledged university known as Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki.
Findings revealed that during the first democratic process of Ebonyi State in 1999, the pioneer Commissioner for Education and native of Ntsurakpa from the village of Umuebe, Dr. Sam Egwu, emerged as the pioneer elected Governor of Ebonyi State.
During his eight-year period, the then president of Ntsurakpa Town Union, Prof. Ozo Nweke Ozo, who had facilitated the payment of compensation to Okpufu people over the university land in the old Enugu State, held various positions including the Secretary to the State Government.
With the liberty which he reportedly enjoyed in the administration of his kinsman while he was President-General then, before ascension to the position of SSG, Prof. Ozo reportedly went to work again influencing the approval of another round of compensation to the tune of N200 million which was paid to the villagers.
With the compensation paid, the people of Okpufu were expected to vacate the university land. But strangely and shockingly too, they reportedly refused to shift grounds.
Like the biblical prophet who is not respected in his hometown, the residents, Daily Sun gathered, snubbed their brother, Governor Egwu, who had pleaded with them to relocate having been compensated.
Governor Egwu, who was obviously restrained from taken serious actions
against his kinsmen given their filial relationship, did not invoke necessary political powers to eject his recalcitrant brothers from the university land.
This obvious political weakness on the part of the government under Egwu who is currently representing Ebonyi North senatorial zone in the National Assembly emboldened Okpufu villagers to stay on. Daily Sun gathered that the residents continued to unlawfully trespass and occupy the land belonging to the state university till Egwu served out his second tenure in 2007.
Same year, Governor Martin Elechi took office. And as expected, the new helmsman came up with his educational policies, which were reportedly designed to improved teaching and learning in the higher institution.
Part of the policy was the resolution to make the state university a single campus, world class university, in 2011, the Elechi-administration decided to implement the resolution.
Again, the people of Okpufu allegedly constituted themselves to a cog in the wheel of progress.
But to avoid brewing unnecessary tension, the state government returned to the roundtable with the villagers and at the end of it, a truce was reached. The state government agreed to pay another round of compensation to the landowners irrespective of the damages they did to the chattels and the environment of the institution.
It was gathered that N36 million was paid to the residents who agreed to vacate the university land, while another N64 million was reportedly paid to the university as compensation for the damages it suffered.
But despite being compensated for the third time, Okpufu villagers who have allegedly become notorious for disobedience to lawful instructions refused to vacate the university land.
Planting of shrines in the varsity
In what appeared as daring the then governor, Chief Martin Elechi, the residents allegedly accentuated their trespass on the university premises by defacing it and putting up mud huts.
They also allegedly mounted shrines around the Vice-Chancellor’s office complex, the generator house as well as the administrative office block. This continued till Elechi served out his second tenure.
In May 29, 2015, David Umahi assumed office. Like his predecessors, he came up with policies targeted at scaling up the standard of education in the school starting with improving the aesthetic values of its environment.
When he took his development arsenals to the institution, he was confronted by the repulsive activities of the residents, which have robbed the citadel of learning of the necessary conduciveness.
“Pursuant to the principles of natural justice, Governor Umahi convoked yet another roundtable discussion with the Okpufu villagers.
In the meeting, the illegal occupants were confronted with records of the many compensation funds disbursed to them by the government of the old Enugu State and previous administrations in Ebonyi State as well as the concomitant agreements by Okpufu people to vacate the university land all of which they had breached.
“Through the intervention of Senator Egwu and Prof. Ozo, the government which wanted instant vacation agreed to an extension of the vacation date till December 31, 2016.
“In his magnanimity, Governor Umahi equally doled out the sum of N10 million to the illegal occupants to facilitate their relocation. This fund was disbursed to the villagers by the current Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Bernard Odo, at the residence of Prof. Ozo.
“By December 31, 2016, Okpufu villagers for the umpteenth time observed this agreement in breach and thereby qualified as champions of civil disobedience and made the land they illegally occupied the headquarters of civil disobedience in Ebonyi State,” narrated a community leader.
Umahi unleashes bulldozers
Tired of pampering the residents of Okpufu village, Governor Umahi, ordered immediate demolition of the buildings occupied by the villagers in the university premises.
But while the demolition was ongoing, Gov. Umahi doled out a whooping N10.5 million as another compensation for the villagers to enable them rent apartments elsewhere.
“Because of the children and women whom I have seen here, I am releasing the sum of N500,000 to enable you hire vehicles to move your properties away before the demolition and another N10 million to enable you rent houses,” Gov. Umahi said.
Meanwhile, a community leader in Ophoke Nsulekpa who was affected by the eviction, Chief Chris Ogbekirigwe, said they were yet to get the money meant for compensation after 16 years and pleaded with the government to allow them to continue to inhabit the place.
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