By Cajetan Mmuta
Members of the Oba community in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra on Monday warned that they will not tolerate a repeat of what happened to the botched airport project land to befall the Oba International Market project land.
The community expressed angst that the airport land which it long donated to the state government has been balkanized with various partitions to individuals for private building projects instead of for public interest and general good for which the land was acquired by the state government in the 1980s.
Addressing newsmen at the Palace of the late traditional ruler of Oba, Igwe Peter Ezenwa, the Regent of Oba community, and son of the late monarch, Prince Noel Ezenwa, said that the community would never allow any project that would not create employment for members of the community, and develop the town.
He warned that a situation where they will give out the land for public interest projects and it will be converted to private interest will not be tolerated, adding that they will resist such attempts to with everything they have.
Prince Ezenwa was reacting to an alleged plan by some traders and government agents to relocate the Federal and State government approved the building of Central Pharmaceutical and Allied Product Warehouse Limited, in Oba by Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN) in conjunction with the Onitsha Medicine Market popularly known as Ogbogwu Market, said that any plan to scuttle the project would fail.
He said, “To my knowledge, Ogbogwu Market has acquired 500 plots of land for their project and we urge them to enter the place and commence work, Oba community is totally in support of their project and solidly behind them.”
“The Oba International Market is a very big land acquired for markets and other public interest projects, we urge them to commence work, they have laid the foundation stone of their project but we understand that some government agents have been working against them.
“I am also aware that Awada Polythene Bag producers have been able to secure another 500 plots of land to set up their factories or whatever it is, in the Oba International Market, so for us in Oba community, we are excited and wholeheartedly welcome them.”
“We are excited that two different projects are going on in the market and at the end of the day, we will be better for it. Oba people do not object to any of those projects, we are absolutely not against any of those projects in the market. We welcome Ogbogwu Market and we also welcome Awada Polythene Bag producers.
“However, we also insist that the terms and tenets of the agreement must be kept, we are not going to tolerate what happened at the botched Oba Airport, whose land was acquired and abandoned and later balkanized and partitioned to individuals who are now building private houses on land acquired for public interest without considering our people.
“This time, we will never allow that to happen again with Oba International Market land, the terms of the agreement are that certain level of employment must go to Oba people, unskilled labor must be given to Oba people and certain professional or skilled labor must go to our people, that is all we ask for.”
“For those who are landlords of the land to make a demand on the projected factory builders coming up there, we are not asking for something too much by demanding that certain jobs should be given to our people.
“For government officials putting stumbling block to scuttle the project so they will have another opportunity to do in the land what they did at the botched Airport land, we warn that they should steer clear, such will not happen again.
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“Whatever the so-called government agents are planning against these projects coming to Oba community, honesty will never allow them to succeed. We are wiser now, we know what they are planning, they want to scuttle the project so they can sell the lands to individuals as they did at the defunct Oba Airport land.
“Onitsha is saturated and the movement is now towards Oba and what we intend to do is not being interested in buying and selling land, we are rather more interested in developing the lands, only investment in the land acquired for the public interest is what we will tolerate, so any new attempt for greedy buying and selling of Oba land by anybody will not be tolerated.”
