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.
