Violence has continued unabated in Eziukwu Amankwo community in Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State following the setting up of a telecommunication mast by some prominent persons of the community without due consultation with the kingmakers of the area.
The impasse in the village was heightened by the sudden construction of a building on an access road leading to the home of one Surveyor Titus Obila-Joseph, who queried the anomalies and irregularities associated with the setting up of a telecommunication mast in the area.
The transaction leading to the citing of the mast was spare headed by a few stakeholders in the community whose actions many had termed selfish and egocentric.
A section of the community’s elders wanted transparency and openness in the transaction process that brought a telecommunication company into the village.
Speaking to journalists on the matter, a community member, Surveyor Titus Obila-Joseph who was denied access to his home, condemned the level of marginalization going on in the village by a section of Stakeholder in the area.
He stressed that it was wrong for anybody to assume lordship over the community’s lands and properties.
“It is very clear that nobody is at home with the present development in the community where someone decide to erect a building on an access road against the wishes of the people.
“I am not the only person using the access road. The wireless company entered a deal with a stakeholder. We told the company that one person cannot carry out such deal on community and the deal is for 5 years.
“The stakeholder that brought the telecom company decided to call a town hall meeting when members of the community started asking questions. My own offence is that I asked for the MOU and a photocopy of the cheque given to the community for the project.
“Because of my input, access road to my home was blocked as a building was erected on it. Blocking my access is their own way of meeting up with their targeting of eliminating me.
“I am not the only person opposing the development. The police told us to talk about peace instead of violence. When i went to the site, I was attacked by some boys. The construction is on. When the DPO went there they attacked him. It is an act of wickedness and expression of accumulated animosity against me. I have not slept in my house because there is no access to my house. The town planning had gone there and placed stop work sign on it.”
In a swift reaction, the President of Eziukwu Ewa Welfare Union, Chief Nkama Ibila, who described the development as unhealthy and inimical to the progress of the Eziukwu Ewa village, pointed out that without peace no community or people can record any substantial development.
According to him, what we usually do is to mop up resources and offer scholarship to indigent members of the community but now due to the activities of some selfish stakeholders, that project can no longer come to fruition.
“It is clear to everybody that it is not healthy. Blocking somebody’s entrance with a building is bad. There must be an agreement and an MoU before you set up a telecom mast. The whole thing was done by one person.
“Even when police came to the cite where the structure was being erected, they attacked them. We know what a company pays for putting up a mast. The whole exercise was fraudulently done. There is no peace there. Before now we use community money to train the less privileged ones but now it is used for legal tussle. They laughing at us. Where there is no peace, there is no development. “
