The ongoing reconstruction of Owerri-Egbu-Mbaise Road, Imo State, has sparked controversies following the demolition exercise, which has rendered many indigenous inhabitants in Mpama and Umuofor villages in Egbu autonomous communities homeless.
According to eyewitness accounts, many ancestral buildings, stalls, transformers, monuments, obiama (ancestral sit-outs) and other structures had been demolished.
An investigation by our correspondent revealed that some of the affected families had since relocated to other places where they are now taking refuge, just as some of the victims had been overwhelmed with lamentations that no compensations of any kind had been paid to them to alleviate their woes.
An indigene of the community who pleaded for anonymity told our correspondent that the road reconstruction had earlier been done on the same road, which also led to demolition of some buildings and stalls with no compensation.
The littered rubbles of demolished structures on the roadsides, coupled with what has been observed as the slow pace of work by the construction company, was said to have compounded the agony of the embattled residents of the communities.
Reports had it that a number of the indigene of the community are now warning up for legal action for what they described as “man’s inhumanity to man” to obtain justice.
This is even as some, according to sources, might fall back to evoking the wrath of their ancestors the way they had done in the past when NEPA took over part of their land without complying with the memorandum of understanding of the time that triggered thunderstorms and strikes destroying their installations.
In his reaction, the information commissioner, Declan Emelumba, highlighted that the project is for the benefit of the indigenes and that the government will pay compensation where necessary.
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