Land grabbers about to sack ABSUTH, workers cry to government

 March 15, 2018 

By Ijendu Iheaka

Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) workers on Thursday protested the encroachment on the hospital’s land in Aba while calling on government to save them from land grabbers.

Speaking during the protest, the Abia State Chapter Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA)Dr Prince Onyemachi, said ABSUTH needed government to urgently reverse the trend before land grabbers sack the hospital.

“We are here to let people know that our land has been continuously encroached, we do not have space for our student hostels, laboratories, offices, some of our students are still at the University Main Campus at Uturu and we need to bring them here.

“The nursing department is not here because there is not enough space to accommodate them and daily before our eyes our land is being taken away by land grabbers.

“We are using this medium to inform the general public, traditional rulers, other stakeholders and government about our plight so that they can help to recover this land.

“It is possible that the letters we have written to the governor have not been reaching him. We are praying that he should help us recover this land so that our entire hospital will be in this compound”, he said.

The Chairman, ABSUTH Joint Health Unions, Chief Emea Ukariwe said that Umueze and Abayi communities gave the land to Eastern Nigerian government in 1962 for  building a specialist hospital.

According to him the land which stretches from Dan Dollars filling station on Aba-Owerri road to Abayi river and Umueze Primary School has been reduced to less than 10 hectres by land grabbers.

Ukariwe said several letters have been sent to Gov. Ikpeazu but government was yet to act perhaps because he has not been receiving the letters hence the need for the protest.

Dr Edmund Ezirim, the Abia State chapter Chairman, Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria (MDCN) said they were protesting the serious concern caused by the illegal encroachment on ABSUTH land.

He said that the encroachment had continued for a long time to reduce the land space befitting the needs of a true college of medicine and asked government to intervene.

He said that several accreditation visits by the Medical and Dental Council and NUC had left reports saying that the hospital lacked space for its needs hence the call for urgent action.

Dr Mrs Chika Uche, Chairman, Medical Women Association, Abia Chapter said that governor Ikpeazu has much expectation on him as an Ngwa son adding he should fulfil his promise not to disappoint his people be recovering the lands.

A hospital source who refused to be quoted said that government agents since the time of Governor Orji Uzor-Kalu have been selling off parts of the land leaving just little now.