By Adadareporters
The Uzo-Uwani Professionals Association (UZPA), a group championing equity and development of Uzo-Uwani LGA of Enugu State, has advised the state government to shelve its planned establishment of a cattle ranch at Nimbo community. The group rather urged the government to build a university of agriculture which the current administration promised them during the 2023 general election campaign.
Our correspondent reports that the state government had proposed the ranch in line with its anti-open grazing law. Aka Eze Aka, the state commissioner for information and communication, in defence of the move, said the intention of the government was towards the implementation of the Prohibition of Open Grazing Law of Enugu State through the designation of specific areas of grazing to discourage and enforce sanctions against open grazing.
He further stated that the government also “intends to use the ranch project to curb the rising insecurity, including kidnapping, murder and rape being perpetrated by mostly herdsmen in the local government.”
Uzo-Uwani professionals, in a release seen by our reporter on Monday, said it was alarming “to site a ranch to settle nomadic cattle herders in Nimbo community”.
In a statement signed by its president, Barr Chinedum Odenyi, and the secretary, Chief Dan Asogwa, the group stated that, “The people of Nimbo, and Uzo-Uwani in general have stoutly risen in opposition to the proposal. We call on the government to stop any further exploration of the subject around the geographic entity of Uzo-Uwani LGA.”
The group claimed that the state government did not engage the community in the design of the project, adding that, “The first time anybody from Nimbo heard about the project was a phone call to the president general of the community by the chairman of the local government, informing him that the government had decided to site a cattle ranch on the borders of Nimbo with Kogi State, on the banks of the Eshi River, and that state government surveyors were arriving at Nimbo the next day to be shown the area so that they map out 500 hectares as the site of the proposed ranch.”
The professionals said the move to establish the ranch was not mentioned during the campaign of Gov Peter Mbah ahead of the 2023 elections. The group said it was ironical that such would be visited in Uzo-Uwani when it was the only LGA out of six in Igbo Nsukka where Gov Mbah defeated Labour Party in the last election.
“It is such a disappointing outcome that the first developmental project the Mbah administration would cite in Uzo-Uwani is a ranch, or RUGA, to settle herdsmen who have caused so much grief and agony to the people of Uzo-Uwani.
“Land in Uzo-Uwani is owned by specific villages and families. Nimbo does not own land as a community. Was there an effort to engage the community to identify the families and villages who own the vast stretch of land around the vicinity of the Eshi River to engage them, and make offers of compensation?” they stated.
The professionals urged the state government to consider the comparative advantage the LGA has in matters of agriculture, regretting that “In early January of 2024, the Enugu State government, in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development – Value Chain Development Programme (IFAD-VCDP), inaugurated rice mills, solar-powered boreholes and cassava processing centres in five local governments of the state to assist rural farmers. The LGs were Aninri, Enugu East, Nkanu East, Isi-Uzo and Udenu. Uzo-Uwani was conspicuously omitted. This was strange when we consider that rice and cassava are staples Uzo-Uwani is known for across the world. The distinctiveness of akpu Opanda, akpu Uzo-Uwani, Ji Uzo-Uwani have received global acclaim.
“Uzo-Uwani people reject the proposal and will not lend their support to any such design, as it debases our people. We do not also see any serious economic reason for the project. To tackle the insecurity which our people are facing and for which we have consistently pleaded for help, the state should be in the forefront of implementing the state police proposal which President Tinubu is mulling and make haste to secure our forests and homesteads from the evil machinations of marauders and blood merchants.”
The group recalled that, “On April 25, 2016, Nimbo was invaded by herdsmen who massacred the people at will, killing, maiming, burning homesteads and livestock pens. When the fire of their bloodthirsty orgy died down, about 50 indigenes and residents of Nimbo lay dead; those who survived had their limbs hacked. Today, eight years later, many are still carrying the physical and psychological trauma of that unprovoked sadistic revelry.”
