Governor Hope Uzodinma’s resolve to build another state owned university in Oru East Local Government Area, precisely in his community, Omuma is currently causing ripples in the state, as people are wondering the reason for such monopoly of development.
Besides, this is happening barely a few months after he unilaterally relocated the Orlu Campus of Imo State Polytechnic to the same Omuma community..
According to an anonymous source, “as if that was not enough, the governor, in a very disturbing manner, allegedly gave the former premises of the relocated Polytechnic to the Orlu Catholic diocese without the consent of the host community that owns the land.
The move has generated rancor and acrimony as the host community has dragged the stated government and the Catholic church to court over what they described as a plot to forcefully take over their ancestral land”.
The community, according to our investigation, insists that there was never a time that the land was donated to the church, pointing out that what was donated to the Irish missionaries is the portion on which Bishop Shenham College was built.
“It is on record that part of the former premises of TESAC was given to the church on rent before the government eventually took over the entire premises.
“The latest development is that the Governor, having relocated the Orlu, Mbano and Umuagwo campuses of Imo State Polytechnic to Omuma, now wants to build a university of Innovation and Technology at Omuma. He is also said to be contemplating relocating Imo Poly to Awo Omumma also in Oru East LGA. This is absolutely unfair.”
When contacted, one of the leaders in Orlu zone, named Dr Uche Nnaji, who is also an academic said, “it is very obvious that Governor Uzodinma is not interested in the holistic development of Orlu zone. He is more concerned about his Omuma and Oru East agenda.
But the question is, why did he relocate the Imo State Polytechnic from Orlu to Omuma when he knew that he would build another tertiary institution in Orlu East LGA? We are presently blaming the Northerners for dominating every sector of the economy, while we are regrettably doing the same thing here. What it simply means is that any person who takes over after Uzodinma will also adopt the clannish mentality of “my community alone” and it is a very retrogressive pattern”.
Recall that a cross section of Imo people berated the current House of Assembly for passing a Bill that will enable the Governor achieve such clannish agenda without asking necessary questions.
