Irked by the unlawful exclusion of Egbelu-Emeke Obibiezena, the major host community of Anambra/Imo River Basin Development Authority from all entitlements, compensations and royalties due to host communities, All Progressives Grand Alliance APGA candidate for Imo East Senatorial District (Owerri zone) Barr Chyma Anthony says under his first six months in the Senate if elected Federal Lawmaker in 2023, Egbelu-Emeke Obibiezena community would smile home with all they have been denied of in the past many years.
Chyma Anthony popularly known as Odiuko stated this when he visited the community and interacted with the leaders and members of Egbelu-Emeke Obibiezena as part of his campaign outings and needs assessment tours of all the communities in the nine LGAs in Owerri zone.
The Abuja-based Rights Activist was shocked to hear that the management of Anambra/Imo River Basin Development Authority has never extended any employment opportunity, corporate social responsibility, compensation and royalties for donkey years now to a community that owns about 80% of hecters of land hosting the mega Federal government agricultural project.
He vowed to leverage on the oversight/intervention mechanisms of a federal Lawmaker to right the wrongs against the people of Egbelu-Emeke Obibiezena.
According to the APGA Senate candidate, the hen that lays the golden must not be subjected to hunger and oppression, noting that with such quantum of lands taken from the poor Egbelu-Emeke people, they hardly have places to farm again as agrarian people hence the need for due compensation, employment opportunities for Egbelu-Emeke community, and the payment of aggregated consequential royalties which usually come annually.
Briefing the incoming Senator for Owerri zone, the Chairman Egbelu-Emeke Obibiezena Peoples Assembly, Mr Humphrey Anokwu said all efforts made in the past to get Imo River Basin Development Authority do the needful, were futile as the management of the Authority never looked into their pleas.
Anokwu told Nigerian Newsguide that Egbelu-Emeke and Umuamaechi Obibiezena actually own 80% of the land area currently occupied by the River Basin Development Authority yet they are poor, hungry and angry with no land again to farm to feed their families.
Barr Chyma Anthony also used the medium to state his willingness to approach the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to ascertain the reason behind the siezure of WAEC results of Community Secondary School, formerly John Kennedy Secondary School Obibiezena.
According to Odiuko, the West African Regional Examination body needs to explain to Obibiezena people what actually went wrong to the extent that WAEC results of the school under reference were seized for several years now.
He lamented that those whose results were withheld alongside their parents and sponsors are more or less hopeless and frustrated.
He promised to apply due diligence in getting to the root of the matter with a view to getting the withheld results released.
The Senate hopeful called on all and sundry in Owerri zone to vote for him under APGA which logo is cock (Oke okpa), explaining that from 2023 going forward, Owerri zone will be the number one Senatorial District in Nigeria in most facets under his able, effective, efficient, purposeful and mass-oriented representation unlike what is obtainable in the zone presently.
The international Lawyer said his team would continue to tour all the communities in Owerri zone with a view to getting first hand information on their Needs early enough to enable him provide solutions to most of them immediately he is inaugurated as senator come 2023.
