The controversy surrounding the ownership of the former premises of Imo State Polytechnic, Orlu campus has taken a different dimension, as the people of Umuire, Eluama, Ndiowerre and Ndikabia in Orlu Autonomous Community, have dragged the Imo State Government and the Orlu Catholic Diocese to court, seeking to repossess their land.
In the case, with Suit No: HOR/48/2025, between, Chijioke Odogwu, Venatius Nnuyi and Hon Elijah P.N. Uzomba as representatives of the Communities against the State Government and the incorporated Trustees of the Catholic Diocese of Orlu, the communities, are praying that the court should determine the original owners of the land.
The plaintiffs, in the statement of claim signed by their lawyer, N.O. Chukwuezi, stated that sometime between 1945 and 1946, some Irish missionaries arrived Orlu and were looking for a place to establish a secondary school.
They stated that their fathers welcomed the Irish missionaries and their desire to establish a school and jointly donated a part of their land known as Uhu Agu to them where they built Bishop Shanahan College (BSC), Orlu.
The communities recalled that the school was then managed for the Irish missionaries by the Marist Brothers.
The Plaintiffs averred that after some time, the same Irish missionaries approached the community again, to give them the remaining Uhu Agu land opposite Bishop Shanahan College for them to use as a temporary place for training teachers.
They stated that at that period, their fathers refused to make an outright donation of the land to the missionaries but merely granted them the right to stay on the land pending when they will conclude their assignment and leave.
Based on that premise, the Plaintiffs showed the missionaries a little portion of their jointly owned Uhu Agu land opposite Bishop Shanahan College, where the missionaries raised few temporary structure for Teacher-Training College.
The lawyer further revealed that another portion was given to the church for Pastoral Centre.
The Plaintiffs further averred that one of the conditions for showing the Irish missionaries the land was that the missionaries would be paying rent to them on a yearly basis through their Traditional Rulers, an agreement the plaintiffs claimed had been carried out religiously by the missionaries until the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967 which disrupted the school's academic calendar.
“When the War ended in 1970, the College's premises were taken over by the 24 Battalion of the Nigerian Army.
“The Army continued to occupy the land until 1973 when the then Government of East Central State took over all schools owned by the Government ,including BSTC,” the plaintiffs stated.
They recalled that the government continued to run and manage the school before the then Government of Imo State converted the site to a campus of Alvan Ikoku College of Education, following the exit of the former occupants.
The communities' representatives further stated that In the process, the government expanded the school and took over other adjoining parcels of the land belonging to them and built a block wall right round it.
“In 1982, the then Government of Imo State returned the campus of Alvan Ikoku College of Education to Owerri and established Technical Skills Acquisition Centre (TESAC) thereon which was renamed Technical Skills Acquisition Institute (TESAI) under the regime of Governor Ikedi Ohakim.
“During the regime of Governor Rochas Okorocha, he made the place a campus of Imo State Polytechnic which the present Government has moved to Omuma in Oru East Local Government Area.
“Following this move, the land became vacant for us the original owners to take back, but surprisingly, the State Government handed the land to the church without our knowledge,” they claimed.
They argued that since the State Government and the former occupant of the land were no longer in need of the land in question, that they lacked the powers to hand the land to a third party.
