The people of Uzo Uwani Local Government Area, and Eha Amufu, in Isi Uzo Local Government Area, both in Enugu State, at the weekend rejected plans by the state government to acquire hectares of land in the areas for the establishment of cattle ranches in the areas.

This is even as the stakeholders in Eha Amufu commended the federal government for proposing to establish a military formation in the rural community to help address the dire security situation in the area.

In separate statements, stakeholders from the two major agricultural belts in Enugu State, described as insensitive, the plans by the state government to unilaterally acquire parcels of land belonging to the communities to establish cattle ranches for Fulani herdsmen.

A statement issued by the Eha Amufu Federated Development Union (EFDU), the umbrella body of the development unions in the area rejected the proposal by the state government for the acquisition of 3000 hectares of land for the establishment of a produce city in Eha-Amufu.

The statement, which was signed by Dr. Simeon Egbachukwu (National President), Chief Uche David Egbogu (National Secretary), and the Presidents General of the seven development unions in Eha Amufu stated that the people of the area had no such vast hectares of land and wondered why the state government would be interested in building such a city instead of allowing the private sector to drive the process.

They argued that the government has failed in running businesses in Nigeria, leading to the privatization of many such enterprises in the past. They said the same fate would befall the project being envisioned by the government of Enugu State.

“Projects such as Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company (ANAMCO), Ajaokuta Steel Company, Nigeria Cement Company, Nkalagu, Enugu Flour Mills, Niger Gas, Ada Rice, Enugu Transport Company, and many other similar enterprises are all failed government businesses and investments. Even the all-important power sector is undergoing deregulation and moving towards private ownership entirely for efficiency.,” the statement said.

Arguing that the produce city project as proposed by the government is not supported by any law, the statement said it was mischievous to attempt to acquire people’s ancestral land for private business without coming out with clear terms of agreement.

In its own statement singed by the President, Chinedum Odenyi, and Secretary, Dan Asogwa, the Uzo Uwani Professionals Association (UZPA) chided the Enugu State Government for the unilateral move to establish a ranch in Nimbo, and said it was unbecoming of the government to embark on such a project without engaging anybody in the community.

While expressing the “stout” opposition of the people of Uzo-Uwani to the government ranching programme, the associationsaid it was “reading a more sinister objective in the proposed project and calling on the government to stop any further exploration of the subject around the geographic entity of Uzo-Uwani LGA.

“The statement said; “UZPA, having considered all the reactions on the issue, finds everything wrong with the proposal and calls on the Enugu State Government to immediately halt any further design and attempt to implement the proposed ranch project in any part of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area. The project is not only insensitive, it is abrasive to the sensibilities of the people of Nimbo Community, and of Uzo-Uwani in general.”

Continuing, they said, “To first underscore the government’s ill-intention, the total lack of community engagement in the concept and design of the project is befuddling. The first time anybody from Nimbo heard about the project was a phone call to the President General of the Community by the Chairman of the Local Government, informing him that the Government had decided to site a cattle ranch on the borders of Nimbo with Kogi State, on the banks of the Eshi River, and that State Government surveyors were arriving Nimbo the next day to be shown the area so that they map out 500 hectares as the site of the proposed ranch for immediate commencement.

“This is the best the State Government thought of as community engagement. It is as puzzling as it is starkly insensitive. And to think that the proposal for ranch was never in any of the promises made to the people of Uzo-Uwani, and specifically to Nimbo Community during the campaigns leading up to the election of His Excellency, Peter Mbah, as Governor of Enugu State.

“It is even more obnoxious that of the six Local Government Areas in Igbo Nsukka of Enugu State, the only Local Government then Candidate Mbah won was Uzo-Uwani, which gave him the edge over the Labour Party Candidate, and unarguably gave him the keys to the Lion Building. It is such a disappointing outcome that the first developmental project the Mbah administration would cite in Uzo-Uwani is a ranch, or RUGA, to settle herdsmen who have caused so much grief and agony to the people of Uzo-Uwani.”

Lamenting the absence of government presence in the local government in spite of its huge economic potentials, they called on the present administration in the state to concentrate on fulfilling its campaign promises to the people and work on revitalizing the moribund agricultural projects in the area, which they mentioned to include the Adarice project, the irrigation facilities built by the late Chief M. I. Okpara in the 1960s and by providing renewed motivation for the youths to return to farming.