It has emerged that the federal government triggered RUGA alarm in Abia
State when it was discovered that a trailer park planned for Arungwa in
Osisioma local government was ‘unusual’.
The trailer park was
designed to include police post, hospital, bank, hotel and school hence
people started suspecting that it was a RUGA project in disguise.
The
traditional ruler of Umuobasi, Professor Sunday Owualah made this known
in a statement he issued to debunk “the false accusation” by Abia State
Government that he had engaged in “malicious insinuation” that land had
been designated for RUGA project in the state.
Abia government
had on July 17, 2019 alleged through the attorney general and
commissioner for justice, Uche Ihediwa that Eze Owualah was crying wolf
over RUGA and issued a seven-day ultimatum to apologise to the state
government or face legal action.
But the embattled royal father
whose domain is contiguous to Arungwa, the host of the suspected RUGA
project, said that he only got involved in the controversy when the
royal father of Arungwa, Eze Ndukwe Enwereji invited him to mediate in
the communal dispute over the land acquired by government for trailer
park.
He explained that the root cause of the dispute was that
Enwereji’s subjects were unhappy that he “authorised (land) acquisition
by government without wider due consultation and unanimity with the
larger segment of his community, particularly the elites.”
Prof.
Owualah said that Enwereji had lamented that he was being maligned and
falsely accused by his people despite the amenities that trailer park
was going to host.
“It was at this stage that I cautioned there
was need for circumspection in view of the unfolding developments around
cattle colony and cattle route in Nigeria presently,” he said.
“My word of caution stemmed from the size of land involved and the facilities to be hosted in the Trailer Park”.
The
royal father said that he had on April 25, 2019 while Ihediwa was still
commissioner for lands “shared my concerns and fears with him for the
size of project in a land-scarce environment”.
He further stated
that he equally raised the issue of possible breach of the purpose
clause in the long in view of the unfolding events the country, adding
that it was wrong for the commissioner to accuse him of raising false
alarm on RUGA.
Apparently not satisfied with Ihediwa’s answers to
the posers surrounding the trailer park the royal father said that he
drew the attention of Ngwa Social Club to the issue on May 26, 2019 via a
WhatsApp group.
According to him, the NSC would “help me
interrogate this project at the appropriate quarters because of the
Club’s strong stakeholder status in the affairs of Ngwa land over the
years”.
Eze Owualah stoutly defended his action and justified his
interest in the trailer park affair even though Eze Enwereji had failed
to properly sell the project to his Arungwa people.
He said: “As
a traditional ruler whose Community is contiguous to Arongwa Autonomous
Community, particularly the two villages in the location of the
proposed Trailer Park, I consider it my moral and ethical duty to
protect the overall interest of my people and others resident in it now
or in the future.
“That is exactly what I did in taking up the
task of drawing attention to the unintended consequences of this
decision that might affect generations now and those yet unborn so that
proper and due consideration is given to it by all stakeholders and not
just only HRM Eze Enwereji and his supporters”.
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