The Ogwashi-Uku Development Union (ODU) has described as an insult the recent inspection of the Ogwashi-Uku Dam by Senator Ned Nwoko without recourse to the people of the town or the Obi in council.
In a statement made available to the press, Mr. Austine Eneduwa-George
Publicity Secretary/PRO, Ogwashi-Uku Development Union, said the community frowned at the decision of the Distinguished senator to hold meeting with the elders/youths of other communities like Olor and Olodo that are satellite towns of Ogwashi-Uku without doing same with the people of Ogwashi-Uku, the owners of the land where the dam is is situated.
The statement noted that Nwoko as an in-law of Ogwashi-Uku people ought to know that the dam is sited in the town and ought to have carried the Obi in Council, ODU and other stakeholders along in whatever he was planning to do the revive and bring the dam back to life.
Below is the full and unedited statement.
“It’s imperative that I call this meeting to express the displeasure of the people of Ogwashi-Uku on the actions of the senator representing the Delta North District at the National assembly, Sen Ned Nwoko . It is quite an insult on the good people of Ogwashi-Uku that the senator, however noble his project idea can be, to snub the leadership of the territory where a proposed project is sited. It is quite condescending for the senator to call a meeting with the Olodu and Olor farm settlements communities, which are satellite villages of Ogwashi-Uku but did not deem it fit to visit the King nor the leadership of the Ogwashi-Uku Development Union to share his idea with them on a project sited in their domain.
The senator ought to know better especially being our in-law since he’s married to our daughter and should know “Odinaani”. You cannot shave someone’s head behind his back.
Both Olodu and Olor are agrarian communities where Ogwashi-Uku indigenes go to farm. Some of the first class chiefs in Ogwashi-Uku own the largest integrated farms in Olor and its environs who ordinarily would have been excited at this news but for the wrong approach.
Farmers are the critical stake holders and beneficiaries of such an irrigation project. Hence such project should bring them some excitement and they can gladly show him where they need help or areas for a perfect location since they are practitioners and know where the shoe pinches..
He did not observe due protocols nor needed assessment that will help the project succeed without any encumbrances, after all the land area in question belongs to Ogwashi-Uku. But he’s holding meetings with the youth of Olodu and Olor. Are they the ones to concede the land for the project? Moreover, they need to be shown the areas where we need irrigation, to positively affect agro produce and alleviate the condition of farmers in those areas
The project in itself is a welcome one that can bring soccur to the people in terms of provision of water to the community and the irrigation for farming. Senator Nwoko should go back to the drawing board and do the right thing. What he has done is placing the cart before the horse. Ogwashi-Uku Development Union has frowned at this approach and cannot get our support without due consultation. There’s also a committee charged with the affairs of the dam set up by the ODU that was also neglected by the senator.
Who and who took him round for the so called preliminary land inspection without the knowledge of the Palace? There was no Ogwashi Uku Chief present nor any member of the ODU exco and certainly not the farmers who are earmarked to be the beneficiaries of the supposed project during that visit. How do you know what land or who’s land you are inspecting however preliminary?
Should the senator genuinely have a project for the people of Ogwashi-Uku and the local govt at large, he has to start on a right footing to avoid any hiccup, ” the statement read.
