The tussle over some parcels of land that has been tearing FUTO and it’s host Communities apart has refused to away.
This is so as the host communities have called on the Imo State Commissioner of Police, CP Aboki Danjuma, to call the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Nnenna Otti, to order over her continued grabbing and selling of lands belonging to the host communities with impunity
Addressing newsmen shortly after court hearing on Friday in Owerri, counsel to the FUTO host communities, Brr Nnanna Nwankiti, condemned Otti’s continued development and selling of the disputed land despite subsisting litigation instituted by over eleven affected communities.
The lawyer stated that the University should suspend action on the disputed land pending the determination of the matter in court to avoid confrontation and conflagration between the institution and host communities.
Nwankiti regretted that the University under Otti had refused to implement the agreement between the Federal Government, FUTO and the host communities few years back in which the Federal Ministry of Works under Raji Fashola, ceded about 2000 hectre of the grabbed land to the people upon discovering that the land owners were neither consulted nor compensated.
According to him, if Otti had signed or respeted that agreement, it would have brought lasting peace and harmonious relationship between FUTO and it’s host communities.
He therefore, called on the Imo State Police commissioner, CP Aboki Danjuma whom he described as a straight forward person, to as a matter of urgency, call professor Nnenna Otti to order to avoid breach of the public peace in the area.
Meanwhile, indigenes of the area and Ihiagwa women on Friday, stormed the Imo State Judiciary Headquarters Owerri in protest, carrying placards bearing inscriptions like “We say no to land Grabbing, Give us back our land, Leave our land alone, Otti”
Speaking to the press, Elder Vincent Njoku from Avu Community decried Otti’s engagement of a company to sell off the said land to individuals without regards to standing recommendations of the Federal Government.
According to him, “the brazen manner Otti and her husband are going about the whole issue could degenerate to a bloodshed if not proper handled by the authority”
He however, urged CP Aboki Danjuma to stop Otti from using police men to harass and intimidate the people of the area to have her way.
Adding her voice, Mrs Ngozi Amadi also from Avu Community, urged Otti and FUTO to leave their land so that their children and children unborn would have where to live and also farm for survival.
