LANDOWNERS in Nsulu, Isiala Ngwa North Local Council of Abia State, have threatened to reclaim their farmlands earmarked for the proposed Abia Airport project ahead of this year’s farming season.
  The affected villages include Okpuala, Umuezenta and Umuelenwa in Umuomainta Autonomous Community, Mbawsi.
  
The aggrieved landowners, who conducted journalists round the proposed runway site yesterday, said they were dissatisfied with the handling of the land acquisition and compensation process.
  The Village Head of Umuezenta and Secretary of the Nsulu Landowners Association, Mr Echezolam Ukaumunna, said the decision to reclaim the lands was driven by the need to avert hunger and economic hardship in the area.
  He accused the Abia State Ministry of Lands and Survey of failing to address repeated complaints about alleged fictitious names on the compensation list.
  
Ukaumunna alleged that the government had not engaged directly with verified landowners, adding that the situation had eroded their confidence in the process.
  “We appreciate the importance of this project; we are not against development,” he said.
  “We have seen the portion involved in the runway and are asking the government to take that and allow the project to proceed. But let them leave the areas outside the 3.54-kilometre runway stretch. We are pleading with the government to grant us access to our farmlands outside the runway corridor. You can see that we did not farm last year and our livelihoods have suffered. If this airport project comes on stream and the people cannot survive, then it becomes meaningless.”
  
He further alleged that fictitious names were discovered on the compensation lists for the three affected villages, adding that several genuine landowners, some with between 50 and 80 portions of land, had yet to receive payment.
 Ukaumunna called on the government to publish the names of the 3,500 persons it claimed had been fully compensated, in the interest of transparency.
  “In Umuezenta alone, we identified about 150 fictitious names and over 130 questionable names in Umuelenwa, likewise Okpuala. We know ourselves; we farm and live together. We gathered our people, including those in the diaspora, and verified the names from compound to compound. We have substantial evidence.”

Some consultants even admitted that there are fictitious names on the list. At one point, we were told 3,500 people had been paid; later, we heard it was 500.
  “We demanded the list of those paid, but instead we were given the list of those yet to be paid, and we still found fictitious names there. We are asking the government to clean up the list so that proper compensation will go to genuine landowners. Let there be a proper agreement in black and white so that our children will not accuse us tomorrow of selling out.”
  He also alleged that the government had not disclosed the rate being paid per portion of land or for cash crops, claiming that some landowners invited to Umuahia were asked to sign indemnity forms without a clear breakdown of the compensation figures.
  
In separate remarks, other stakeholders, including Mr Isaac Ndukwe and Mrs Ihuoma Ogubunka, expressed frustration over what they described as a persistent lack of transparency.
  They called on Governor Alex Otti to scrutinise those handling negotiations with the villagers, noting that their inability to farm last year had worsened hardship among families.
  The landowners, however, said they remained open to dialogue, provided discussions were conducted transparently and directly with verified landowners.
  
Efforts to obtain the reaction of the Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Mr Chaka Chukwumerije, were unsuccessful at the time of filing this report.
  However, the News Agency of Nigeria reliably learnt that the ministry had intervened in the matter to address the landowners’ concerns.