The bickering going on between the host community and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) over land acquisition has taken another dimension as indigenes of Ihiagwa, one of the host communities, in Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State staged a peaceful protest in front of the main entrance of the university, demanding that part of their ancestral land acquired by the federal government for the purposes of establishing the university be returned to them.

During the protest, which took the university community unawares, the community gave the management of the university a 30-day ultimatum to take necessary steps in resolving the issues of land grabbing and encroachment being experienced in the course of the ongoing construction of perimeter fencing of the proposed FUTO College of Medicine and a private partnership housing estate.

The protesters alleged that FUTO, through the instrumentality of government, acquired their ancestral land without due consultation, and in the course of building the university’s College of Medicine illegally took over their entire ancestral land and encroached on the community farmlands.

The community appealed to the Federal Government to intervene as quickly as possible to avert any breakdown of law and order in the area.

However, this is not the first time indigenes of Ihiagwa community would carry out a protest against the management of FUTO over allegations of land grabbing.

But this time, indigenes of the community, both young and old, carried a mock coffin and barricaded the main entrance of the university, which halted vehicular movement.

The community said: “We, the people of Ihiagwa community in Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State do hereby send this message to the federal government over the forceful seizure of our ancestral land by the Imo State Government working in cohort with the management of FUTO led by Professor Nnenna Oti, the Vice Chancellor of the university.

“We are making this appeal for your quick intervention due to the dangerous dimension the land grabbing by the state and her educational institution is taking if nothing is done urgently to avert it,” he said.

The Traditional Ruler of the Ihiagwa, His Royal Highness, Eze Lucky Ajoku, said that all along his community had always agitated and appealed to government to intervene in the matter, adding that “it is absurd to grab the community’s entire land, even this my palace is also included in the area FUTO is fencing.

“Whoever did the acquisition of over 4500 hectares of land for the university did not bother to consider the wellbeing of the indigene of the community. I talked to the immediate past vice chancellor about the fencing on a personal note that it does not make any sense,” he added.

(THISDAY)

Update news