RULAAC said it was informed that the water project at Umuokpo village is one of the greater Owerri, Umuahia, Okigwe and Aba Water Schemes started by the then Governor of old Imo State Sam Mbakwe.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has, on behalf of Umuokpo village in Adakam Amumara autonomous community, Ezinihitte Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, written to the commandant, Imo State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) called for investigation into the vandalisation and looting of government water project equipment.
Executive Director of RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma, made the letter written to the NSCDC commandant available to TheNiche on Monday.
The letter reads, “Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre – RULAAC has received information from the Chairman-General of Umuokpo village in Adakam Amumara autonomous community, Ezinihitte Mbaise LGA, Imo State, Chief Oscar Uzodinma Albert, and hereby writes on his authority and on behalf of the village council, to call the attention of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Imo State Command, to urgently wade in and investigate the shocking incident of the vandalisation and looting of gigantic water project installations in their village by suspected vandals. The vandals are reported to have claimed that they bought the multi billion Naira installed equipment from the Imo State government under former Governor Rochas Okorocha. This petition is in line with NSCDC’s statutory mandate to protect public infrastructure, in conjunction with the Nigeria police.
“Mr. Nkemjikam Erondu, former chairman of Umuokpo village stated in a voice note (which the complainants shall make available at the appropriate time) as follows:
“That some people (whose identities he is yet to disclose) called him and said they wanted to see the Umuokpo village council chairman;
“That they invited him to Town School, Adakam Amumara, where they told him that they bought the water scheme project from former Governor Rochas Okorocha far back in 2017 when he was in office.
“That the people claimed that they confirmed the sale with the current govenor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma.
“That the people said they invited him, in his capacity as the chairman of the village, to inform him so that they would not face any challenge when they come to dismantle and carry away the installed equipment.
“That the people promised to pay the sum of two hundred thousand Naira (N200,000.00) to the host village as compensation.”
The letter said Mr. Erondu further revealed that the traditional ruler of Adakam autonomous community, Eze O.B. Nwokocha ‘sent somebody’ who confirmed that the project was sold to the people and that the village chairman should be informed before the people dismantle the equipment.
It read further, “According to the leadership of Umuokpo village, Mr. Erondu did not communicate to the village council after he received the message from Eze Nwokocha, to enable the village leaders to verify the information from the traditional ruler.
“Villagers woke up about 2 weeks ago to witness massive vandalisation and carting away of dismembered equipment and raised the alarm. Videos of scenes within the precincts of the project site reveal dismantled and massively vandalized installations with tools such as gas cylinders and others suspected to have been used for the dismantling and dismemberment of the equipment before carting most of them away.
“More than two weeks after the village raised the alarm about this disturbing development, the community leadership has remained mute and has done nothing known to the entire Adakam community which is the host community for the government project.
“This is in spite of the further information that the ‘people’ also previously visited the Palace accompanied by ‘a lawyer’ who presented some documents to the traditional ruler which they claimed was evidence that ‘their company’ had bought the project from the state government.
“The people of the community are in serious doubt about the genuineness of the claim by a yet-to-be-identified ‘company’ that government sold to them a government water project installed at huge cost.
“The more curious thing about this whole episode is how this ‘company’ could have waited for more than 8 years after the administration they claimed to have sold the project to them left office before they came to claim it.
“Could it be true that the administration of former governor Rochas Okorocha sold a government project to a private company? Who are the owners of this company? Is it also true that the current government under Senator Hope Uzodinma approved the sale of the project instead of completing it to serve the purpose that the project was conceived and initiated to serve?
“These are questions the community is looking for answers to!”
RULAAC said it was informed that the water project at Umuokpo village is one of the greater Owerri, Umuahia, Okigwe and Aba Water Schemes started by the then Governor of old Imo State Sam Mbakwe in the 1980s which he could not complete before the Muhammadu Buhari coup which terminated the life of the republic.
The letter said Jim Nwobodo also started the greater Enugu, Awka, Onitsha, Abakaliki and Nsukka Water Schemes but could not complete them before he lost power to late Christian Onoh in the 1983 election.
“Today, most of those water schemes are yet to be completed, thus exacerbating the problem of acute water shortage in the zone.
“This gigantic water project initiated at huge financial cost was intended to provide pipe-borne water to Mbaise and parts of Obowo. The project contains heavy and multi-billion Naira equipment that could not be dismantled and evacuated in one week.
“RULAAC, on behalf of the community members, calls on the NSCDC to spare no effort to unravel the truth and if they find that the claims are false- as they seriously suspect- all those responsible should be brought to book, the already stolen equipment recovered and further stealing of the remaining ones prevented,” the letter read.
