Posted by By Chidi Nkwopara on
ARRANGEMENTS have been completed for the establishment of yam seedlings multiplication centre in Uratta, Owerri North local government area of Imo State, before the end of this fiscal year.
OWERRI - ARRANGEMENTS have been completed for the establishment of yam seedlings multiplication centre in Uratta, Owerri North local government area of Imo State, before the end of this fiscal year.
Imo State Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa, dropped the hint in a message delivered on his behalf by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Chief Soronnadi Njoku, during this year's Oru Owere Festival in Owerri. "It is the sincere desire of the present administration to ensure that our people produce the food we eat.
It is our desire to see that because we celebrate new yam festivals in Igboland, we will no longer buy imported yams to grace annual festivals like Oru Owere. To achieve this goal, government has concluded plans to establish yam seedlings multiplication centre at Uratta, before the end of the current fiscal year", Udenwa said.
On the request by indigenes of Owerri for restraint in acquiring land, the governor said his administration was fully aware of the problems the people were facing, adding that "government is truly disturbed that the indigenes no longer have space for expansion".
He called for dialogue between government and representatives of the indigenous landowners, with a view to finding lasting solution to the nagging issue.
Speaking earlier, the royal father of the community, Eze (Dr.) Emmanuel Emenyonu Njemanze, raised alarm over what he termed ""the provocating activities of our neighbouring Owerri North local government"", on the on-going pre-census work in the state. ""The census officials from Owerri North local government area have been encroaching into Owerri Municipal Council area. The Office of the State Coordinator, National Population Commission, should ensure that nobody robs Peter to pay Paul"", Njemanze appealed. Presenting the address of Owerri Community Assembly (OCA), the Secretary General, Mr. Sam Oparaku, said it pains the Owerri man to see his land allocated to individuals, who in their respective communities, have and retain their ancestral land.
""On each Oru Owere day, this vexed issue is repeated in our address to government. The indigenes need areas for expansion. Now that our population within our homesteads is bursting to the seam, government will do well to appreciate the urgent need to act now, without the usual recourse to redtapism"", OCA pleaded. While accepting that the community has to pay some price for housing the state government, OCA however insisted that it will amount to double tragedy if the benevolence sadly turns to their becoming refugees in their own home.