Anonymous
My brother Gozie, you have done well in educating the naive who is perishing for lack of knowledge. But let me quickly add that Orji Uzor Kalu’s strangle-hold and vice grip on the Ugwueke community is as a result of the sinister activities of the likes of Johnson Timid Chinedu and his cohorts, a major player in the Okija voodoo project of Orji Uzor Kalu.
OUK’s GOVERNMENT AND THE DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY IN UGWUEKE COMMUNITY.
It will be recalled that throughout the 8 years of Orji Uzor
Kalu’s uneventful Mamacratic and Okijard government in Abia, Ugwueke community got nothing. Although the good people of Ugwueke voted massively for OUK with an erroneous belief that an indigene of Bende will take care of Bende, all to no avail. It is on record that during OUK’s days as Governor:
1. Ugwueke was among the communities in Abia state with the worst road network, Orji never cared.
2. There was no electricity in Ugwueke during OUK’s regime, Orji gave a blind ear to the yearnings of the people.
3. Though agrarian, the good people of Ugwueke could not sell their farm produce outside the community, hence untold hardship stared the people in the face.
HOW OUK REWARDED UGWUEKE COMMUNITY FOR THEIR SUPPORT
Every true son of Ugwueke community, especially those from Ndi Elu and Amaokai will attest to the fact that Orji Uzor Kalu cunningly acquired hundreds of hectare of Amaokai arable land under the pretence of trying to build an industry there after deceiving some of the natives with a bribe of 9 million naira. That was all he paid to acquire more than half of the community. OUK is therefore guilty of Obtaining By Tricks (OBT). Instead of an industry, OUK is using land as a personal farmland.
Being a rich man, OUK’s farm produce are relatively cheaper than the ones from the peasant farmers. The actual aim of establishing the farm was not to make money but to put Ugwueke farmers out of business as buyers now prefer OUK’s cheap produce to those of the locals, a case of man’s inhumanity to man.
OUK has reduced the land owners to labourers and farm hands, and the poor labourers are not allowed to take any of the food items home for fear of being branded thieves or being caught by the merciless OUK’s Okija juju which the land was laced with. It is widely believed that the juju is the reason why the original land owners are afraid to talk about it. Truth is that a revolution has started as well-meaning sons, daughters, in-laws and friends of Amaokai community are already on the march to recover their land. The people have come to realize that if nothing is done expeditiously to recover their land now, in future, the sons of Amaokai will have to go to Orji in Igbere to beg for a portion of land in Amaokai and a permission to build house in their hometown, Amaokai Ugwueke.
You can see that the potency of juju also has an expiry date. In the words of the legendary Raggae musician, late Bob Robert Nesta Marley,
“You can fool some people sometime, but you can’t fool all the people all the time, stand up for your right. Get up! Stand up! Don’t give up the fight!”
‘SENATOR’ ORJI UZOR KALU AND THE PEOPLE OF UGWUEKE
Ever since Orji was erroneously declared winner of the Senatorial election in Abia North, how has Ugwueke community fared?
1. Orji was secretly sponsoring a bill to establish RUGA in Umunna. When his pet project failed because he was too timid to understand the nitty gritty of legislative process, he came out openly in a press conference to declare RUGA in Bende an Abia North.
If he had succeeded, Ugwueke community, the food basket of Bende would have been worst hit. Their farms would have been devastated, and the people will become poorer.
It is rather unfortunate that we have been accusing the Fulani Herdsmen for invading our land without giving thought to the man who showed them the way. It is no longer news that Orji is the owner of all the cows that are destroying our farms in Umunna an Isuikwuato areas. He only employs the services of the Herdsmen.
It is on record that Herdsmen attacked and raped an old woman, a peasant farmer in Igbere. In the process, a young man who overheard the cries of the woman in agony from his farm and rushed to free the woman was badly injured as the rapists attacked him with their cutlasses. The young man almost bled to death but for the timely intervention of a Leader in Bende North PDP who promptly paid the hospital bills.
Today, the women of Okoko Item can no longer prepare the traditional ‘Ahu’ (Melon) for the New Yam Festival because they complained to the Traditional Rulers that Orji’s cows trampled and destroyed all the ‘Elili’ planted in their farms. We are anxiously awaiting the response of the Traditional Rulers to the petition sent to them
MAO AND AMAOKAI UGWUEKE COMMUNITY
With the coming of Dr. Mao Ohuabunwa, as a Senator, the fortunes of Ugwueke changed. You can drive along Ugwueke road with your eyes closed. The community is fully connected to the National Electricity Grid. Many thanks to the relentless efforts Senator Mao who put Ugwueke road and other roads in the 2018 and 2019 NDDC Budgets through the instrumentality of the Committee on Works as well as the Committee on Appropriation were he served as member.
As if that was not enough, Mao went ahead to also put Amaokai Ugwueke-Okoko Item road with a view to ease the sufferings of Amaokai Ugwueke community.
It is obvious that Senator Mao do not claim credit for all the infrastructural development in Ugwueke, but the fact is that Ugwueke is a lot better today than Orji left when he was Governor. Orji did nothing for for this great community apart from deceit and exploitation. Even as road contractor, he shortchanged the people by making merchandise out of the people of Ugwueke.
