By LEONARD OKACHIE

The landowners for the proposed Abia Airport project in Nsulu, Isiala Ngwa North LGA, have threatened to reclaim their farmlands ahead of this year’s farming season.

The affected villages include Okpuala, Umuezenta and Umuelenwa in Umuomainta Autonomous Community, Mbawsi.

The people, who conducted newsmen round the runway site, on Wednesday, said they were no longer comfortable with the handling of the acquisition and compensation process.

Mr Echezolam Ukaumunna, the Village Head of Umuezenta and Secretary of the Nsulu Landowners Association, said their decision to reclaim their lands was further driven by the need to avert hunger and economic hardship in the area.

He accused the Abia State Ministry of Lands and Survey of failing to address repeated complaints about alleged fictitious or non-existent names included on the compensation list.

Ukaumunna said that the government was not engaging directly with the genuine landowners, adding that the situation had eroded their confidence in the process.

He said: “We appreciate the importance of this project, we are not against development.

“We have seen the portion involved in the runway, and we are asking the government to take that and allow the project to move on.

“But let them leave the areas outside the 3.54-kilometre runway stretch.

“We are begging the government to allow us access to our farmlands that are outside the runway.

“You can see that we did not farm last year, our livelihoods have suffered.

“If this airport comes to stay and the people cannot survive, then the project becomes meaningless.”

He alleged that fictitious names were discovered on the compensation lists for Okpuala, Umuezenta and Umuelenwa.

He further claimed that many genuine landowners, some with up to 50 to 80 portions of land, had yet to be paid compensation.

Ukaumunna said that for transparency, the government should publicly release the names of the 3,500 persons it claimed had been fully compensated.

Continuing, he said: “In Umezenta alone, we identified 150 fictitious names, over 130 questionable names in Umulenwa, likewise Okpuala.

“We know ourselves; we farm together and live together.

“We gathered our people, including those in the diaspora, and carefully verified these names from compound to compound.

“We have substantial evidence, even some consultants have admitted there are fictitious names on the list.

“At one point, we were told 3,500 people had been paid. Later, we heard it was 500.

“We demanded to have the list of those paid.

“Instead of giving us that, we were given a list of those yet to be paid, and we still discovered fictitious names there.

“We are asking the government to sort out these names so that adequate compensation will go to the real landowners

“Let there be a proper agreement in black and white so that our children will not accuse us tomorrow of sell out.”

Ukaumunna further alleged that the State Government had not disclosed the rate being paid per portion of land or for cash crops.

He claimed that some landowners invited to Umuahia were asked to sign indemnity forms without clear breakdown of how compensation figures were calculated.

In separate remarks, other stakeholders, including Mr Isaac Ndukwe and Mrs Ihuoma Ogubunka, said they were frustrated over “the persistent lack of transparency”.

They called on Gov. Alex Otti to “closely scrutinise those handling negotiations with the villagers”.

They said their inability to farm last year had worsened hardship among families.

They, however, said that they remained open to dialogue, provided discussions would be held directly with the verified landowners and conducted transparently.

Several attempts made to get the reaction of the Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Mr Chaka Chukwumerije, to the development were unsuccessful.

However, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reliably learnt that the ministry waded into the matter with a view to addressing the concerns raised by the landowners. (NAN)

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