ANAMBRA CARGO AIRPORT: MATTERS ARISING; OUR FEARS AND OUR CONCERN

(AWKA) On the 26th of March 2021, the people of Ivite Umueri in conjunction with government officials led by the Commissioner for Lands undertook the physical survey of what the government of Anambra state termed parcel “C” of the Cargo Airport.

Everybody, including some of the government officials, was in shock and in disbelief on the extent of the lands which were encompassed in the purported parcel C which included several houses and living quarters, churches, schools, deities and industries.

From all indications, it became obvious that the group of government officials who plotted the coordinates some years ago must be living in the outer space.

No human being who eats through his mouth should have involved himself in such a dirty assignment.

Sacking a whole community of Ivite Umueri made up of Mgbede, Ogbu and Umuatuolu as the parcels did not stop at the farmlands.

Not that the 729.606 hectares donated for the project were not enough. Our fears that the government was holding a big surprise for us by deliberately avoiding going to show us the actual portions of land taken was confirmed.

They have been avoiding showing us the actual size and places taken for more than ten years now.

It was during the exercise that it was revealed to us that there was no physical presence on the land by those who plotted the coordinates. According to the source that happened to be one of our guests, it was only parcel “A” measuring 729.606 hectares of land that the officials of the Ministry of lands visited physically to plot their coordinates.

But the coordinates for Parcels B, C, and D were done in Awka using sophisticated machines. No wonder many people’s houses, schools, churches and industries were included. It is only a machine that could do such a job and meanwhile, it operated from Awka.

Another disturbing revelation made during the exercise was that it was only Parcel “A” that its soil was validly tested. The Purported parcel B where the runway is sited, its soil was not tested. The same thing is applicable to the purported parcels C and D but they were hurriedly and blindly grabbed in haste to forestall the anger and outcry of the community.

In all these, the 729.606 hectares that was validly acquired for the airport is lying fallow while the government and its agents are busy making the indigenes internally displaced people in the ancestral land.

The few remaining houses and their owners in our community after the airport is completed cannot make the mistake of still living or staying in those houses which will be sharing common fence with the Airport. The noise and the landing impacts of heavy cargo planes such as the Boeing brands will make living in Ivite Umueri a costly mistake.

We therefore implore the Federal government and all those agencies saddled with the responsibility of overseeing airport regulations such as NCAA, NISREA etc to seriously monitor these developments. It is not enough to go into projects just to score political points at the detriment of the people involved

By Titus Ugo Nwoye (Awka)

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