Abia Community Cries out to Otti as Dumpsite Takes over Farm Lands, Pollute Environment

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

Following the loss of farm lands and pollution of their environment by dumpsite, the people of Eziala Nsukwe Autonomous Community, Ubakala, have staged a peaceful protest crying out for Governor Alex Otti’s intervention to end the menace.
The protesters specifically demanded for the governor to compel the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency ((ASEPA) to relocate the dumpsite to enable them return to their farms.

Eziala Nsukwe Ubakala in Umuahia South Local Government which sits within the state capital territory has been hosting a dumpsite since 2017 but the inhabitants claim that it has been expanded by ASEPA to encroach into their farmlands.
Aside from the farmlands, the dumpsite has made the nearby Nigeria Television Authority(NTA) Channel 21 Umuahia, and the Carl Academy and Football College unconducive with noxious air emanating from wastes strewn all over the place.

To express their displeasure, the youths, women and community leaders, including the traditional ruler rose early in the morning and blocked access into the dumpsite. Singing local protest songs, they used palm fronds to create a barricade, a traditional warning against trespassing.
The barricade prevented waste disposal vehicles of ASEPA from gaining access into the dumpsite, forcing the drivers to park the waste-laden trucks and tippers.

Spokesman of Eziala Nsukwe, Chief Chiadikobi Ezigbo, lamented that the community has lost its farmlands to garbage, adding that the environment has also been polluted.
He said that ASEPA, in a bid acquire more lands for waste dumping ravaged cassava farms without paying compensation thereby denying people food and source of income.
“Government is talking fighting hunger, yet our farms have been destroyed and lands rendered useless for farming,” he said.

Ezigbo said that efforts made by the community to get ASEPA relocate the dumpsite have yielded no result as the management of the agency ignored all the letters wrote by their lawyer.

“We wrote ASEPA on August 27, 2024 and on November 5, 2024, yet there has been no response,” he lamented, adding that the attitude of ASEPA has “left us to wonder if Governor Alex Otti is aware or what’s going on.”

The traditional ruler, the Eziji Ofor I of Eziala Nsukwe, Chief Bartholomew Okorie, who came out to protest with his people, said that he could not fathom what government wants an agrarian community to do after taking its highly fertile farming area.

“Government should leave our land, so we can grow food to feed ourselves and have something to sell to get money,” he said.

Chidinma Ngamegbulem, a nurse from the community, noted that the location of the dumpsite is not proper as it has constituted a source of several forms of ill-health to the villagers.

Many of the protesters, including women and youths vehemently opposed the continued existence of the dumpsite in their area.

“We don’t want this again; let them (ASEPA) leave our land,” said Mrs. Queen Uchechukwu.

The General Manager of ASEPA, Mr. Ogbonna Okereke, who was contacted on phone over the controversial dumpsite, declined comment and promised to call back.