The Government of Imo State led by Governor Hope Uzodinma has denied the report that there was plans to demolish the three hundred and five (305) Primary School Buildings constructed by the administration of former Governor Rochas Okorocha.
In reaction to a cover page of Trumpeta Newspaper of yesterday, Thursday, January 21, 2021, the Imo State Commissioner For Information and Strategy, Hon Declan Emelumba said that the story was malicious and therefore should be recanted.
In a rejoinder addressed to Trumpeta Newspaper captioned “Immediate Retraction of Your Front Page Story of Thursday January 21, As False Mischievous and Malicious” the Commissioner said that story could not provide any evidence “that the Government is demolishing or planning to demolish any school in Imo State” adding that the said piece quoted callers on a Radio programme featuring the Commissioner for Education, Prof BTO Ikeagwuoha demanding for the demolition of the school buildings left behind by the Okorocha regime for structural defects.
The Commissioner for Information described the news as “most unfortunate, unethical and unacceptable”.
He therefore made it clear that there is no plan to demolish the said schools.
In view of this clarification, Trumpeta therefore corrects the misrepresentation of comments of the Commissioner for Education, Prof Ikeagwuoha.
Meanwhile the newly established Public Lands Protection Unit in the Ministry of Lands, Survey and Physical Planning, Imo State has embarked on the removal of unapproved structures in the State capital. It could be recalled that Governor Hope Uzodinma in his Urban Renewal Programme had approved the establishment of the Unit to identify all public lands in the State subject to illegal trespass, unauthorized development and user. Led by the State Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Physical Planning, Chief Enyinna Onuegbu, and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Duties, Nze Chinasa Nwaneri, the Public Lands Protection Unit demolished the site of EveryDay Supermarket built on the government’s owned old Magistrate quarters along Orlu road after the developer failed to discontinue further development on the property pending the release of the Government gazette on the matter. Other places where some structures were pulled down include the Mechanic village at Orji where unauthorized persons erected some structures at the place, the portions of the land called Housing Area “K” along Assumpta Avenue World Bank/Umuguma Road, New Owerri, and the illegal constructions on the pass way along Onitsha road that leads to Nworie River. Speaking on while the Government took the measure, Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Physical Planning, Bar Onuegbu said the exercise is to restore sanity in the Owerri Master plan saying despite several warnings, some recalcitrant individuals have violated government directives and went ahead to erect and build structures which have distorted the State. Describing the exercise as ongoing until the State is rid of illegal structures, the Commissioner stated that Governor Uzodinma is serious about his Urban Renewal Programme to restore the State to its original aesthetic nature as the most cleanest state in the country. He equally disclosed that those that had developed their structures where the Whitepaper had disapproved need to wait for the gazette to come out warning that those who neglected this humble advice have themselves to blame if their structures were affected by the Whitepaper. The Commissioner while commending the members of the Public Lands Protection Unit appealed to Imo people to co-operate with the government to bring sanity to the way things are done and to restore the original master plan of the State.
