Exposed: The Nsulu Airport Land Compensation Fraud By Abia State Government

By Obinna Oriaku Ekwedike—

We are aware that the Abia State Government has turned the compensation for land and the properties of individuals into a veritable conduit for fraud. The controversy surrounding the inconsistencies in names and amounts payable in the Nsulu Airport runway compensation is a case in point

Many discerning Abians have wondered why a state government that claims to be people-welfare oriented would prioritise the payment of N40 billion as compensation while ignoring the gratuities of workers who retired as far back as 2000, more so, when other present-day governors, who inherited similar liability, have cleared such backlogs.

Recent revelations from an eminent son of the soil, Hon. Uzo Azubuike, who is the liaison between the Nsulu landowners and the state government, is mind-boggling and cannot be ignored. It was reportedly discovered that more than 1,000 fictitious names were inserted by officials of the state government from the Ministry of Lands.

The fake names were discovered by the Nsulu landowners. Nsulu is a close-knit ancient community where people know one another, and the history of family land ownership is handed down from generation to generation. Therefore, you can imagine the shock when, while going through the list published by the state government, they identified strange names that had never existed, or known families, or owned a piece of land in that location.

Some of these names, along with their account numbers, bear Yoruba names among the Ngwa people. They cannot even claim that the lands were sold to these Yoruba individuals, because family farmlands cannot be sold without notifying the community. To the best of their cultural records, no such sales were ever made to those Yoruba names on the list; thus, they were rightly considered fictitious.

Shockingly, the total amount allocated to these 1,000 strange names is about N1.4 billion. We had expected an official disclaimer from the state government after Hon Uzo Azubuike’s revelation on the fake 1000 beneficiaries. Why is the government mute?

A government that claims to be an epitome of integrity personified and corruption-free cannot brush off this discovery from its own data.

Therefore, it is very clear that the Alex Otti administration is worse than past administrations. The only difference is Mr. President’s economic reforms, which have placed an average of N60 billion into the hands of most state governors monthly. Unfortunately, Otti still claims that “repainting” is an achievement even after pocketing billions from the improved allocations from the APC Federal Government.