From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Government has threatened to acquire a disputed land between Bomu and Lewe communities in Ogoni, if they fail to end their communal war.
Governor Nyesom Wike, who gave the hint, said the State government would be compelled to acquire the disputed land, if the two Ogoni communities fail to end the protracted conflict that has claimed several lives.
The governor made the assertion during the flag off of the reconstruction of Government Secondary School, Kpor, in Gokana Local Government Area of the State, yesterday.
He noted that after the crisis that culminated in the killing of prominent Ogoni leaders in 1990s, fratricide should have been considered an unpardonable taboo in Ogoni by now.
Wike stated: “Prominent people in Ogoni have died. The few remaining you want to still kill them. If I were you people, what had happened to Ogoni should have made everybody to be together, to forget about killing one another again. Are you not tired of killing yourselves?”
Governor Wike, who described the communal crisis between the two communities as saddening and regrettable, warned that after meeting with the two communities and they fail to resolve the dispute, the State government will acquire the land for public good.
He said: “I will meet with the people of Bomu and Lewe. If you don’t agree, I will acquire the land. But, I will give you the opportunity first and if you don’t agree, I will come and take the land and build what I want to build”.
Governor Wike commended Ogoni people for being supportive of his aspiration to govern the State since 2014, when he declared his intention.
According to him, the reconstruction of the Government Secondary School, Kpor, was in fulfilment of some of the promises he made to the people of Ogoni during his campaign.
He criticised the immediate past administration in the State for allowing old secondary schools to dilapidate just because they wanted to build socalled model secondary schools that each cost the State at least N6 billion.
Wike said: “In this country, we believe that we must destroy to make our own name. These are schools that have produced prominent Nigerians and Rivers people.
“We have the Government Comprehensive School, Enitonia High School, Birabi Memorial Grammar School, County Grammar School and others. All they do, is to bring down these schools and to build their own”.
Governor Wike insisted that only the best quality would be accepted from the contractor and directed that every fund required for the project should be released in order to speed up the work.
The governor also said that a police station would be built near to the school as part of policy to beef up security around learning institutions where boarding facilities are provided for students.
Performing the flag-off, the Senator Representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District, Senator Barry Mpigi, expressed the appreciation of Ogoni people for their several educational and road infrastructure including Police Station provided in the area by the Governor Wike’s administration.
Mpigi expressed: “This school was established in 1976. But, it started academic activities in 1979. This school has produced three prominent persons among the ones we can mention. A professor in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, one of your commissioners and the Auditor General in the local government system. Such a school deserves more. People have ignored this. But, thank God, today, you have remembered this school”.
Giving the description of the project, Special Adviser to Governor Wike, George-Kelly Alabo, said the event marked another phase of planting of the seed of development characteristic of the Wike administration.
“We have structures here that are dilapidated and you have graciously approved the reconstruction of this school”.
He explained that 20 structures would be built in the school comprising of two dormitories of 288 capacity each; one for males another for females (totally 576).
There will also be two one storey structures and each would have 12 classrooms.
He said: “There will be workshops, science and art laboratories, Assembly Hall. Quarters for the Matron, Principal, Vice Principal, Staff and, of course, external wall works, water and electricity supply”.
