The Mgbarakuma Community in Ubakala, a suburban town in Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State has pleaded with Governor Alex Otti to look into the incessant rape cases, extortionist activities and assaults going on within the community.
This is even as the community also pleaded with the Governor to relocate the Abattoir in the community, as they linked the Abattoir and the butchers within it to the inhumane treatment of their people.
The community alleged that the butchers were extorting, assaulting raping their women and selling hard drugs in the community which has suddenly become a norm.
The traditional ruler of the community, His Royal Highness Eze Ebere Ubani who led the peaceful protest together with his cabinet saw to the fact that the people remained peaceful while the road leading to the Abattoir was blocked, thereby grounding all commercial activities.
The protesters displayed placards with inscriptions vowing that they will never give up what belongs to them and that land allocated without development over the years must be revoked and returned to the owner.
Other inscriptions read, “Say no to imposters and our women have no place to farm and our land allocated to government without development.”
Eze Ubani said that the butchers have refused to pay royalties to the community for donating their land to them over the years.
He also alleged that the butchers who are predominantly indigenes of Ibeku in Umuahia North Local Government Area, were intimidating his subjects to the extent of forcing them to pay gate fees if go to the Abattoir to purchase meat.
“When I became the Eze (king) of this community, I called the butchers for a meeting with our people, but they said they wanted to meet with me privately. I insisted that the meeting must be with either community.
“Instead of cooperating with us, they wrote me a stinker, claiming that I could not do anything because they had the backing of the government in power then.
“They even threatened to report me to the former speaker of the House of Assembly. I had to tolerate them because I wanted peace to reign.
“This Abattoir has been here for 30 years without any good impact on our community. Apart from this Abattoir, other lands belonging to us were also acquired by the Federal Government to build the Nigeria Immigration office and Prison but no compensation was paid to our people.
“The butchers intimidate and assault our people, rape our women and sell hard drugs which has a big negative impact on our youths. We are calling on the state government to revoke this land and ask the butchers to relocate to the cattle market at Laokpanta.
“We want the government to revoke the agreement they have with butchers and give us back our land for our women to farm on them.
“We are also telling the government to always involve us whenever they want to give our land to any institution for development so that we can negotiate on how our youths can be employed.”
The Traditional Prime Minister of Mgbarakuma, High Chief Christian Onyebuchi and the Women leader of the community, Deconness Nwanna Udo, also corroborated the position of their king.
The secretary general of the community Mr Ezigbo Chinedum, lamented that the presence of the butchers in the community is doing more harm than good, stressing that the troublesome attitude of the butchers is painting the community in a bad light and chasing other genuine organizations away from them.
“They are preventing our people from developing the land that the government allocated to them here. They said the land is their own and we have asked them to present their evidence. We have also reported the matter to the Ministry of Land and Housing.
“The National Directorate of Employment is threatening to relocate their training centre from our community because of the activities of the butchers, so we want the state government to help us and ask them to go back to Laokpanta because their presence here is not doing us any good”.
The President Butchers Association Umuahia chapter Mr Ngozi Williams, denied all the allegations leveled against them by the the community and stressed that the protest by the community members was a surprise to them when they got to the Abattoir and saw that the protesters had blocked the entrance.
Williams said the butchers and the community members have had a cordial relationship over the years, adding that they will approach the traditional ruler for a dialogue and resolution of the crisis.
He said, “The Abattoir has existed for 30 years and we have been doing business with the community members without any disturbance. We are surprised to see people protesting in the market today. We have resolved to meet the traditional ruler for a peaceful dialogue to resolve the issue.”
