Indigenes of Nguru community, in Nsukka Council Area of Enugu State are currently on war path with a Roman Catholic Priest of the Nsukka Catholic Diocese, Rev. Fr. Paul Obayi over alleged forceful take over of their land for a proposed university.
Obayi, of the Okunerere Adoration Ministry, Nsukka, is from the same Nguru community in Enugu State.
In a petition to the Catholic Bishop of Nsukka, Rt. Rev. Prof. Godfrey Igwebuike Onah, Obayi’s kinsmen accused him of taking over more than 100 plots of land belonging to the community through the back-door.
Speaking under the aegis of Forum of Concerned Nguru Citizens, they accused the priest of deceiving some elderly men in the village into signing off their land to him under the pretence of building University in the area.
The petition obtained by DAILY POST was signed by Honourable Titus Attah and Sylvester Okey Onah, chairman and secretary of the Forum, respectively and 20 others.
It was entitled: “APPEAL FOR YOUR INTERVENTION IN STOPPING REV FR PAUL OBAYI FROM APPROPRIATING ALL OUR COMMUNITY LAND FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF BUILDING A UNIVERSITY”.
They stated that though not unaware of the implications of complaints against people in the Priesthood, they had no other option left as Fr. Obayi was uncooperative.
The Forum equally accused Fr. Obayi of inducing some jobless youths in the area with money in order to win their support.
“It took quite some time, thinking and consultations to take this route in seeking redress over what we have concluded to be deliberate injustice on the part of Fr. Obayi against his people in Nguru Nsukka.
“The issue at hand is a vast expanse of land totaling well over 109 hectares belonging to Nguru Community that Rev. Fr. Paul Obayi, a Priest under your watch and guidance, has conspired with a few selfish people in Nguru Community to appropriate for himself.
“Sometimes ago, we learnt that following a dispute over the ownership of Obelibe (a vast land area, owned collectively by the entire Nguru Community) and Likke ( a kindred in Nguru), Fr. Obayi had presented what he made the people of the village to see as a peaceful resolution to the simmering dispute. We understand he offered to take the land and build a university on it. Information we had said he had claimed he has a partnership with a foreign university to bring the educational institution to our community.
“In full cohorts with him are a few, largely idle and jobless young people in the community that we understand have been profiting financially from our brother, the reverend ever since. With these people behind him, it was therefore easier to sell the idea to the Council of Elders (Akpuru Arua) who lack the capacity, for reasons of age and generation gaps) to properly interrogate the issue.
“As a brother, who grew up with some of us in this Forum, we wrote a letter to Fr. Obayi, asking for further discussions on the matter before anything could happen on that expanse of land.
“Fr. Obayi never replied nor reached out to any member of this Forum for further exploration and interrogation of the idea not until we had an altercation vide a telephone conversation with him in our bid to resolve this issue during which he labeled us as an ‘Unknown Group’ probably not worthy of any consultation. His reply dated the 31st day of May, 2017 is hereby attached for your further perusal.
“What happened was that some of us whose names appeared in that letter were singled out for campaigns of calumny in our community and those making personal profits from this rather dubious enterprise and blowing Fr. Obayi’s megaphone labeled some of us enemies of progress.
“This is far from the truth. We are educated. We have travelled far and wide. We therefore understand the benefits and value of education for societal growth and personal development.
“But we also understand the opportunity costs of trading off the fixed asset owned by an entire community to just one individual, irrespective of his or her vocation and status. We also believe that such transactions, where it would take place, should be discussed exhaustively with all and every stakeholder to ensure total buy-in, support and even prayers.
“Rather than explore exhaustive dialogue, what Fr. Obayi has done is to employ a divisive tactic of setting up our fathers against their children. This he has done in many ways. First, he has refused to discuss with the young, better enlightened elements in the community that are capable of asking critical questions that will unravel the transaction.
“Two, he has gone on to purchase a bus for the elders of the community, giving them a feel-good feeling, even when it has not been defined how the bus was going to be managed and maintained.
“He has also in further proof of his total lack of altruism in the whole process, gone further to give out the sum of Five Million Naira which is to be shared among the ten villages that make up Nguru; sums meant to perpetually shut out dissenting views and cow the gullible few in his camp.
“We also have learnt that some idle young people in the village are essentially on his payroll, collecting and receiving various sums of monies, all in an effort to buy their support, indeed he organized a feast for them on the 6th day of June, 2017 wherein he killed cows for them, cooked and provided free drinks to all who cared to eat and drink away our collective heritage in a deceptive compliance with the traditional demands of ‘ishi nri al’”, they further alleged.
The Forum posed the following questions for the priest: “What kind of university is he bringing to Nguru and placing on an expanse of land larger than the two campuses of the University of Lagos put together?
“Where is the approved (permanent or provisional) license for the establishment of that university by the National Universities Commission?
“Where is the Memorandum of Understanding between Fr Obayi, his Company, and the university he is bringing to Nguru?
“Is this University a community school or Fr. Obayi’s private enterprise?
“If it is Fr Obayi’s private enterprise, is he expecting to make profits from school enrolment and other activities the institution involves in?
“If there is going to be profit; how right does it sound to him as a Priest of God, that he appropriates a vast expanse of land belonging to his community, grows it to make profits while penury and want ravage his people?
“Beyond the bus he bought for our Council of Elders (most of whom are above 85 years old), the Five million Naira he brought, and the cash gifts that we also understood some young people have got out of his generousity, what is the take-out for Nguru beyond the intangible satisfaction and bragging right that a private university was cited in their village?
“If this University will belong to Fr Obayi, what happens when he, neong a mortal departs this earth? Will the university return to Nguru, the original land owners? Will it return to Fr Obayi’s family (his brothers and other close relatives) since he is a priest and is, by his vocation, expected not to marry and bear children of his own? Or will it return to the Church he vowed to serve with and for the rest of his life?
“Assuming all stakeholders agree that Obelibe is available to be given away, who and what informed the choice of a university as the priority project on that land? Is a university our challenging development imperative? Should we be given the choice and options to choose what best suits us to locate at Obelibe or should Fr Obayi choose for us?
“If and when we agree that a university is the best we wish to be sited at Obelibe, and that we are given the land to Fr Obayi to do whatever he pleases and even Will it to whomever delights his emotions and preferences, what are the tangible, measurable, enforceable, documented benefits to Nguru that will, no matter how inadequate, compensate for their generosity in given over to him their land?”
While cautioning that the matter could jeopardize peace in the community, they urged Bishop Onah to make Obayi understand that “the crises in the Niger Delta have for years been fuelled by unresolved or badly managed land-related matters between oil and gas multinationals and communities. “He should also be made to understand that Canaan Land, where Bishop David Oyedepo operates his mega church and university still have unresolved issues with some communities, whose ignorant fathers were made to cede land to the pastor in the past.
“Fr Paul should also understand that great universities do not become great on the back of the vastness of their land. Appropriating over 109 hectares of land is not the key. ABTI America University, with all the vast land in the north is not sitting on a land that large in Adamawa State. Our own Godfrey Okoye University is not on a land that large also.
“As mortals, we all are bound to leave this earth one day. I am not sure Fr Obayi, in all his spiritual exploits as the Ministering Priest of the Okunerere Catholic Adoration Ministry (OCAM) will want to be remembered as the priest and son of Nguru who sowed the seed of present and future discord in the land of his birth.”
When contacted, Fr. Obayi described the allegations as unfortunate, noting that if too much pushed, he would relocate the University to another area.
He told DAILY POST that “all the elders, all the youths gathered themselves and gave me that place.
“It didn’t stop at that, we have an MoU and they all signed; including security agents; they just want to make some noise, it won’t get anywhere.”
“They are just fabricating so many things; I have 1000 hectres in Uzo-Uwani. They know that when they do all those things, I will leave with anger; they are not taking anything from me if I leave that place.
“They have been making this noise but the youths drove them away; the elders drove them out; do you know that the people saying all these don’t even visit the community”, he added.
He described the allegations that he bribed the youths and the elders as laughable, stressing “you do bribery before not after; it was when they said we are giving you this land free, I then said I’m giving the elders bus, security bus as well as N5m for the community; it was spontaneous; I promised scholarship to one person from each village, 10 in all, and to tar their roads.
“I have land everywhere; I would have pulled out since but the youthjs said it will lead to bloodshed; that’s what’s still holding me; they are not even staying in the village; they are not on ground. I’m considering to leave; do you know what it means to pull out a University?”
Comments