Imo Community Students In Limbo As Govt Demolishes Primary School
CHIGOZIE AMADI
There is palpable anger among the people of Umuoba village in Eziachi community in Orlu Local Government Area of Imo State following the demolition of the only primary school in the village by the state government.
The aggrieved people lamented that their children have been thrown into the open with no alternative place of learning provided for them nor compensation paid to the village to be able to provide an alternative school for the displaced pupils.
Speaking on the development, Engr. Chibuzor Okorie, the community chairman of Umuoba Development Union, that the school was demolished following the takeover of the land on which the school was built by the state government. He disclosed the acquisition was done without compensation or official communication to the village by the state government.
He stated the school was built in the 1970s and point during the war, the government used the land, part of which, the school is situated to camp the military.
According to him, “After the war, they (the military) left and the government was servicing it.
“The police squadron was using part of the land and was paying rent to the village. It also paid for some economic trees they cut down but they did not pay compensation for the land because the land was not handed over to them for full ownership. They only paid rent.
“However, the school was still on the land and was functional. However, our people asked the police squadron to leave the place but the mobile police unit refused to go out even when they had been transferred to Owerri.
“The entire land space is more than 100 hectares of land cited along Orlu-Amaigbo road.”
He added, “They have been using the land but our school activities continued on the land. I visited the school as the chairman of the village.
“The headmistress called me and we went for a landlord association meeting to make sure that the school and the environment were properly taken care of. Late last year, I got the village youths to help the pupils clear the school field. We bought new football posts for them.
“Not up to four months ago, the school management conducted me around the school so that we could know some amendments we can make. Suddenly, in April this year, we started noticing some movement around the school and the entire environment.
“Some people started bringing in machines without official communication to us. The community said no. Why should our land be taken without proper information? We were not consulted. At a point, it was as if we were going to start fighting the people coming in.
“They were bringing machines, excavating other areas, destroying people’s crops, because our people were still farming in those areas. When they found out that the villagers were getting agitated, they brought in Ebubeagu security and the military who stormed the whole place. We asked what was going on but no answer was given to us.”
Okorie said that the villagers went to the DPO of Orlu Area Police Command and were told that the issue was bigger than what the command could handle.
“We were asked to go to Owerri. We went to Owerri through the Commissioner of Police and did all we were supposed to do, which made the police say they wanted to come and arrest those behind the destruction because we wanted to unmask the people doing the destruction.
“The Commissioner of Police visited the place but did not make any arrest. We mobilised again and went to the commissioner of police and they said they were still trying to unravel what was happening.
“They said they were writing letters to know what was happening and to know if the government had acquired the land.
“There was no official communication from the government. We didn’t know who the people destroying the land and the school were. No signpost showing that there is an award of any contract to do a road or anything. People were only insinuating different things. Some said the state government wants to build a government house annex.”
He further said “The contractor, Granburg, said they were asked to come and build a perimeter fencing of the place, but the community is not aware. Who sent them, they did not tell us.
“Initially, we asked our representative in the state house of assembly, Hon. Ikenna Ihezue, a member representing Orlu State Constituency, said he doesn’t know anything about it. Later, he said he was attracted to it, that we should calm down.
“He said he would get them (the government) to compensate. Later, he said that the government said it will not give any compensation. One day, one military man from our place came and asked the military officers there to withdraw their men.
“Meanwhile, the people kept going further into the land, and the last of it was bringing down the primary school without making any provision for another place for the pupils and the village.
“The day they pulled down the school, some teachers got injured. They removed the irons, the roofs and brought the school down. The children were in school the day they brought the school down. The children had to run outside.
“They used the police, the military and Ebubeagu to chase people away. Till now, nothing has been done about it. I had to ask the children to start using our town hall. That is where the pupils and their teachers are.
“The same hall is also being used by other people who paid us to use the hall for primary and secondary schools. Our children are just using a small part of the hall.”
According to him, the traditional ruler of the town denied any knowledge of whatever that was happening and that the person who informed him of what was happening was the House of Assembly member.
“I also called the President General Arch. Achugo and he told me that he is not aware of anything.”
However, speaking at a town hall called by Umuoba people and presided over by Okorie, the state lawmaker, Ihezue confirmed that the project is being carried out by the state government for government house annex extension.
