An Owerri High Court presided over by Hon. Justice K.A Ojiako has ordered the governor of Imo state, Owelle Rochas Okorocha from entering or developing the New Market in Owerri.
In suit No HOW/171/2018 filed against the governor of Imo State, the Attorney General of the State, the Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Urban Development and Imo State as defendants, the plaintiffs, Prof. Onyewuchi Oguoma and Okechukwu Onyekwogala prayed the court to stop the defendants from entering “Ohia Edo situated at Umuihua, Umuodu, Owerri in Owerri Muncipal Local Government Area, otherwise known and called New Market or New Market park, Owerri”.
In an interlocutory injunction granted by the court, Justice Ojiako gave a restraining order, against the defendants, their servants, agents, officers, privies and or hirelings, from and in whatsoever manner, from entering, building on, developing the land in question.
The court also stopped the defendants from “allocating, alienating, assigning, selling, transferring, leasing and disposing off the land in dispute pending the determination of the suit”.
It would be recalled that the New Market Owerri is one of the various markets in Imo State demolished by the government of Imo State, led by Owelle Rochas Okorocha.
The Old market, also known as Eke Ukwu Owerri, was among the markets mauled down by the rampaging government bulldozers even against court orders.
