Abia State government has threatened to take legal action against the
\ntraditional ruler of Umuobasi autononmous community, Osisioma Ngwa local
\ngovernment area, Eze Prof. S.I. Owuala, for allegedly claiming that an
\nexpanse of land measuring 20 hectares at Aro Ngwa community, has been
\nacquired for\u00a0 the RUGA project.<\/p>\n
Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Uche Ihediwa, said an
\naction would be taken against the monarch if he fails to apologize
\nwithin 7 days, stressing that the government was displeased with the
\nreport as no certificate of occupancy has been issued on the land.<\/p>\n
Decrying the controversy trailing the land at Aro Ngwa,\u00a0 Ihediwa
\nexplained\u00a0 the process of acquiring the land predated the President
\nMuhammadu Buhari administration, insisting that the land lying along the
\nEnugu \u2013 Port Harcourt expressway was mapped out at the request of the
\nfederal government in 2014 to construct a trailer park to de-congest
\ntraffic in Aba and described the rumours as unfounded and wicked.<\/p>\n
Ihediwa, who was Commissioner for Lands and Survey in 2014, also noted
\nthat the land at Aro Ngwa measuring 20 hectares did not meet FG’s
\nrequirement of 50 hectares of land for a trailer park.\u00a0 He, however,
\ndisclosed that the state government has decided to build a car Assembly
\nplant on the land.<\/p>\n
“The man who is behind this false information is the traditional ruler
\nof Umuobasi Autonomous Community in Osisioma Ngwa LGA. We’ve not even
\ngiven letter of allocation not to talk of certificate of occupancy for
\nthe trailer park. It will be insensitive for us to go against what the
\nentire South East in the issue of RUGA. We’re giving him 7 days to
\napologize to Abia State government or we’ll meet him in court.<\/p>\n
“We want to clear the air on this unfortunate, unfounded and malicious
\ninsinuations going round the state. The land use Act is very clear on
\nthe processes and procedures that can be followed before lands can be
\nacquired.<\/p>\n
“In September 2914, the Federal Ministry of Works, Transport and Housing
\nrequested for land to establish trailer park in the course of the
\nreconstruction of the Enugu\/Port Harcourt Highway.<\/p>\n
“This was in 2014 and as at then the project was going on in almost all
\ncommercial cities in Nigeria meant to avoid unnecessary traffic in the
\ncity. The request then was for specific areas; one in Umunneochi,
\nanother in Umuahia while we have the last one at Aro-Ngwa in Osisioma
\nNgwa LGA.\u00a0 This was how what started under President Jonathan suddenly
\ntook another colouration which was never within the plan of Abia State
\ngovernment to establish anything like RUGA here.<\/p>\n
“The government then penciled down some areas for that project. Every
\nFederal Government project comes with request for land. This request was
\nmade under President Jonathan, but in the passage of time people will
\nintend to give misguided interpretation to a very noble objective.<\/p>\n
“When we came on board, the request was still on the pipeline so we went
\nabout trying to interact with the communities in the areas penciled down
\nfor this trailer park. They requested for 50 hectares, but all we saw in
\nthe area was 20 hectares and so we aborted that assignment leading to
\nthe penciling of the land for a Car Assembly Plant attracted by the
\ngovernor from China.<\/p>\n
“As we were working on the Car Assembly Plant, someone who knew about
\nthe trailer park in this very dispensation of RUGA went about spreading
\nthe rumours that the trailer park is now a plot to establish RUGA.<\/p>\n
Abia State government has threatened to take legal action against the traditional ruler of Umuobasi autononmous community, Osisioma Ngwa local government area, Eze Prof. S.I. Owuala, for allegedly claiming that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n