Foremost Abuja medical doctor, Dr Eloka Menakaya, has come out to corroborate the claims of the Chairman of Ranent Industries Nigeria Ltd, Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka over the provision of land for the university’s take off.
Menakaya who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone from abroad, said that, as a matter of fact, he was the first person Rev Fr Monsignor Johnbosco Akam approached, and he was able to convince his kinsmen of Umunya, Anambra State to provide a whopping 2000 plots of land for the University’s take off at a very subsidised rate, even before they met Ezeonwuka.
In his story, he recalled how Ezeonwuka went out of his way to hand over the Certificate of Ownership of his lands to Monsignor Johnbosco Akam for NUC (National Universities Commission) sighting and provision of operational licence.
These generous gestures had led to the school’s making them members of the school’s Pioneer Board of Trustees.
Unfortunately, the medical doctor says, shortly after their efforts to assist the university with lands to get its licence and take off, they were craftily nudged out of the university’s board, while strange faces were used to replace them.
In his affirmation of Ezeonwuka’s role to the school, he insisted that Tansian University owes a lot to the businessman, and have greatly wronged him in its current attempt to claim his Oba land as theirs.
Below is a word for word transcription of his response on the matter:
“Me, Engr Ben Nwodika and somebody else met with Monsignor Akam at Princess Hotel, Zone 7, Abuja. Near NAFDAC.
“He came with about 6 or 7 people and said he wants to establish University but is having challenges of land. That people told him I can help because our side, Umunya has lands. We had the meeting from around 10 am to 2pm. When I got to the village, I called some community elders and informed them. I was interested because this is something that has to do with education. I told them it would bring us development.
“I convinced them that the Monsignor has the funds and they accepted. When he came, I asked him what name he is proposing for the University and he mentioned Tansian, and I liked it because in the whole Igbo land, it doesn’t matter where you are from or your denomination, once it’s Rev Tansian, it’s like a saint for the Igbos. So everybody liked it. The land was about 100 k per plot then, but we gave it to them at 20k per plot. That was about 2000 plots, because NUC said it just be more than 1000 plots.
“While this was ongoing, we now needed a take off site, because Umunya was virgin land, nothing was there.
“We had a meeting at late Igwe Okpoko’s place at Oba, Anambra State, and that was the first time I met Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka (Rojenny). Before then, I hadn’t even heard about him. So that was when Rojenny said he had a site and we all went to take a look at it. The idea was to use it as take off site, as part of NUC requirement. NUC needed the C of O of the land.
“Rojenny took a loan from a microfinance bank either in Nnewi or Oba, I have forgotten. So he had a debt balance of ₦14.5m and the bank refused to release it till the money is paid, and it was urgent to show the papers to NUC.
“Of course Rojenny provided the C of O to Monsignor through an understanding with the bank manager, but issues came up later, and Rojenny said they never bought the land, that he was just being nice, which I think is the accurate information, because he gave them the land in order to secure the licence.
“When we were doing this thing, Rojenny was trying, he did his best even brought other investors like Ralph Obiora and Bencof, there is another lady involved, Mrs Vivian Okoye, who was former Commisioner for Education in Anambra State. She was the president of CWO. The lady was then saying, this issue of church, let’s even find out what’s really happening from the Bishop.
“So the Catholic bishops had a conference in Abuja and we went there. We met Valeria Okeke who was the Catholic Bishop – I had known him for a long time, he is from Umudioka. He said we should wait, when we finally met him and mentioned Monsignor’s name, his mood changed.
“He was really upset and said we can’t discuss the matter there. He said we come to Onitsha. It was then that we began to realise that the university issue had no church connection but private arrangement.
“Monsignor was just using the name of the church to make it look like a Catholic project.
“When Monsignor said they were having difficulty seeing NUC Secretary Prof Bukola, I took them to Abuja because Bukola is my friend.
“We met him going for lunch with the Minister for Education, Oby Ezekwesili, who is my cousin’s wife. That’s how Monsignor got access. One day, one Mr Ebo, a secretary at NUC called me and said that if the Catholic Church writes to NUC on the Tansian University matter, that we will not get that licence.
“That there is plan to give the licence meant for Tansian to another region, not south east. So I had to call the Bishop and appealed to him not to write NUC on the matter. I told him, this is about Ndi Igbo, our region. He didn’t write.
“I went to meet Ezekwesili because they wanted to override us. So that was how we got Tansian.
“When all these efforts had been made, suddenly, they began to push out everybody. I was a board member of the Pioneer governing council, nobody told me anything.
“Suddenly, the school started excluding us. So this is the situation. All these people there now, I don’t know who they are. When we went to NUC recently, they were complaining about Tansian, and said there are so many petitions against the university.
“We gave you the land, you didn’t pay, you just paid 20 percent because, you gave us the impression that it was a Catholic church project and because you are a reverend father, we believed it. We later found out it was a private institution. How can you do that?
“If its private, you should pay full because it’s a full business venture. If it was the church, they would run it as charity.
“There is one young man, Peter from Ugah, Monsignor’s community. Monsignor said its his nephew, and he was in charge. That Peter, a reverend father, renounced his priesthood, married and now has two children. He is one of those dragging the university when Monsignor died. Everybody is desperate to get a chunk of the university.
“I am so disappointed in the Tansian University issue because the numerous scandals are embararing the saint’s name. It’s also an embarrassment to Ndi Igbo.
