Airport Project: We are not resisting government – Nsulu landowners , as Govt., communities reach agreements
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
Abia State government says it has reached agreements with host communities on the timely completion of the state’s airport.
This is as the landowners of the project site at Nsulu in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area have declared that they were not resisting government over the project.
Governor Alex Otti told newsmen that the agreement was the outcome of the latest engagement between government and representatives of the Nsulu Airport Communities’ Landowners Forum held in Government House, Umuahia.
Represented by his Chief of Staff, Pastor Caleb Ajagba, Governor Otti explained that the meeting was in furtherance of government’s community engagements with the landowners which he assured would continue.
He disclosed that certain agreements have been reached between government and Nsulu people, assuring that government was committed to fulfilling those agreements.
“There is no doubt that all of us here are on the same page in terms of the relevance and importance of this project to Abia state.
“A number of decisions have been reached and I will outline them. We have been able to touch base with them, also to seek their productive collaboration to make sure that within the space that has been projected for the completion of this airport, work continues unabated.
“We have also agreed that the cutting of the traces must be completed to ensure that we identify the genuine landowners.
“We have agreed that after that is done, enumeration will continue and adequate compensation would be paid,” Otti said.
The Governor also said that it was agreed that the indigenes would be the first to be considered for employment when the project is completed, assuring that the project would not be abandoned. He promised that the engagements would continue until the project was finally completed.
The Governor appreciated President Bola Tinubu for his magnanimity in making sure that the airport was brought to Abia.
He equally thanked all Nsulu sons and daughters who have shown commitment and sincerity of purpose by identifying with the plans and purposes of the present administration in the state.
Speaking on behalf of the representatives of the Nsulu Airport Communities’ Landowners Forum, Rt. Hon. Uzo Azubuike, said the people of Nsulu were happy with the outcome of the meeting.
Azubuike, a former federal lawmaker, said: “We have seen government redirect itself from people that we considered intruders and pretenders who had no land in the affected area, trying to distract government from the real owners of the land and people mistook that for the land owners resisting development.
“We are happy that government has shown humility by listening to the land owners and their complaints.
“Government has made the first adjustment by reducing the area that they intended to use for the project and in the meeting today, we have also pleaded with government to go further and reduce the land, knowing that our people are agrarian people who live all their lives on the land.”
“We’ve made so many proposals and we can see that government is willing to listen to us and we will go home now and tell our people who sent us to give government every cooperation to identify the land,” he added.
The Abia airport project was flagged off on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 by the Minister of Aviation, Barr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), and the state governor, Dr. Alex Otti.
However, some indigenes of Nsulu, particularly the landowners, protested over the procedure for the acquisition of the land for the project, which the government said it was committed to addressing
