The Chairman, Ukwa West Council of Traditional Rulers and Member Abia State Council of traditional rulers, HRH Eze C.A.F. Dike, Isi 1 of Isimanu Autonomous Community of Umuokwor Ozar Asa, Abia State, has called on Governor Alex Otti to graciously look into the issue of power outage in Ukwa West Local Government Area of the State.
According to the Monarch, Ukwa West has been without power supply since 2014 as the ugly development has negatively affected the growth of businesses, influx of investors and other viable economic activities within Ukwa West.
The Traditional Ruler of Isimanu Autonomous Community of Umuokwor Ozar Asa, Abia State, stated this while interacting with the media in his Palace.
HRH Eze Dike who expressed optimism that the present administration of Abia State would look into the matter, being a people-oriented government, further enjoined Governor Otti to assist Isimanu Autonomous Community of Umuokwor Ozar Asa, Abia State, in the construction of its rural roads, empowerment of the youths and security of lives and properties.
The Traditional Ruler, who will be celebrating his Silver Jubilee in 2025, called on his people to be patient with both the State and Federal Governments, as more democracy dividends will soon reach them in no distant time.
“This is my 24 years on the throne and I will be doing my Silver Jubilee next year. I am the pioneer traditional ruler of my autonomous Community. I didn’t take over from anybody. The journey has been back and forth and it has not been easy being an Eze in an oil producing Community and you know what goes on. The challenges before us have been enormous. You see here, we are the ones that lay the golden egg but we do not see anything as it should be, in terms of development.
“We don’t even have light for over eight years now. The State Government should come to our aid. We have our resources and they are eating from our resources and they are extending small small things to us. Reconnecting us to electricity is not a big deal. We don’t have good rural roads, which you can see. We don’t have higher Institutions here, which we are supposed to have just like other places. We want the Government of Abia State to come to our aid. So far we have not gotten scholarship from anybody since the inception of this Autonomous Community.
“The Company called Millennium was given this Oil Well Head by the Federal Government. You know this oil well was established in 1958 and someone born in 1958 is very old now. And so, there’s nothing coming out from the ground and the Company has no money too to go to drill new oil wells. Once you drill new oil wells, oil will come out and so that’s the challenge. They have been trying their best to see that they keep on managing. Since they came, there’s a little development in my Community.
“There’s a lot of employment opportunities for my community members. It has not been easy to be able to handle different segments of the Community leadership. It is by wisdom and by the Grace of God that we have arrived where we are now. Once you are the Eze of a Community, it doesn’t mean that you are the overall. You are at the head and when this one talks you listen to him, when this one talks you listen to him and compare both and know which one is the best.
“You know that in the Community, you will always find those who will say, no it won’t happen here; there was a time that we had crisis in this Community and about seven persons were killed because of oil. Thank God that we were able to resolve it and come back together. My message to my people is that they should endure with the Company because better things are coming ahead. What we don’t have today, we will have tomorrow and it’s not by boxing, or killing or finding a way to pull your brother down, because you didn’t get a particular thing today. Tomorrow is pregnant.
“Let’s endure and watch what the Federal Government is doing. The present economic situation is affecting everybody, including the Federal Government itself. So, I am appealing to everybody to remain calm and law-abiding.”
In his remarks, Chief Stanley Nwachi, Ohamadike 1 of ishimanu Autonomous Community harped on the need for the State Government to place its search light on the Community, in order to curb the issue of insecurity and other forms of criminality from the Area.
He enjoined the youths to remain law-abiding, gainfully engaged and make judicious use of their time for the enhancement and development of the Community.
“We know that based on the economic situation of the Country, it has not been easy. Some of our youths are graduates and because there are no jobs, but ever since Millennium Oil and Gas came into our Community, most of our youths were engaged by the Company.
“And as a matter of facts, the youths do not have any problem. They have been doing their meeting, and doing well and our traditional ruler, is trying because he has been disturbing the Company over the employment of our youths and provision of other social amenities for the Community.
“By his own power, most of them are actually employed. But the truth is that some are not doing well. Most of them leave the way they are supposed to follow and start doing other things, like the issue of smoking all these hard drugs, upon which we have been trying a way for them to stop it.
“Last time, we set up a Committee on that and since then, some of them are desisting from that. The challenges we have is not different from what the traditional ruler have said. The issue of power outage is more than eight years now. Since 2014, we have not seen light here. No good road and another problem we are having here is that people are living out of fear because of how Helicopter is throwing bomb here and there and I cannot actually know the reason why it looks as if we are in a civil war.
“Every two, two days we see shooting here and there. So, I want the Government to look into to that and help us. There are some people that are suffering BP. One person died the other day because of over shooting in the Area. And so, we want the State Government to come to our aid to know how they can control the situation. It is disturbing us seriously.”