By Festus Ahon

ASABA—THE people of Udu Kingdom in Udu Local Government Area, Delta State, have warned the new management of Delta Steel Company, DSC, Premium Steels and Mines Limited, against using the lands acquired by the Federal Government to secure loans from banks.

Enjoining the new managers of the moribund DSC not to usurp the rights of the people of the kingdom in any of the lands originally acquired by the Federal Government for use of DSC, the Ovie of Udu Kingdom told them not to use the lands for purposes other than those for which they were acquired by government.

Advising financial houses especially the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to resist the use of DSC lands for mortgage purposes, the monarch in a letter by the spokesman of the kingdom, Chief Sam Odibo, said: “While it may be wrong for buyers to jump into DSC’s lands without approval from government, it is also wrong for DSC to use the said lands to secure facilities from banks since the lands were acquired from Udu people for specific purposes.”

In the letter  addressed to the CBN Governor and all financial institutions in Nigeria, in response to a warning issued by the company on the sale or purchase of the lands by the original owners,  the King said:  “DSC’s lands must be used for the purposes for which they were acquired and not for securing facilities which the original owners could as well do with their lands if the lands were not acquired by government.”