By the time the urban renewal embarked upon in Owerri, the capital of Imo State by the Governor Rochas Okorocha administration comes to completion, Owerri residence who left the city for a few months will not recognize the town again.
This assertion was broken by the State Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Urban Planning, Mr Uche Nwosu, who paid a surprise visit to Trumpeta Corporate Head Office in Owerri last week.
The youthful politician said that the essence of changing the face of Owerri is for the city to meet the world standard of other towns, even as the administration has decided to revisit the Owerri master plan to restore the state capital to its original position by the founding fathers.
Commissioner Nwosu who appealed that some structures may be dislodged in the process to achieve this goal maintained that for Owerri to recover its lost glory, the city must be partitioned in a manner that it would be attractive to investors, and therefore has decided to allocate spaces for Mechanics, Farmers, Street Traders and other artisans to do their businesses freely and display their wares.
He said the era of speculating Lands in Owerri, than build is over, as those who have lands allocated to them must try and develop the lands.
“Two years ago, people speculate than build in the state. And this created a situation where what people do is to just buy lands and leave them undeveloped. But today, due to our policy, houses are springing up every where in Owerri, especially in new Owerri” he said.
He disclosed that Okorocha’s administration has delved into the problem between Land owners and buyers at the Okohia, Naze, Nwaorie Layouts etc, pointing out that such lands were allocated to developers who could not access the lands because the indigenous and original owners were not paid compensations.
“We have paid compensations to such owners and now the allotees can move in and develop such areas in peace, and create development in the city” the Commissioner disclosed.
He said his administration has updated the Imo State Geopolitical Information Agency, IGIA to the extent that all you need to do is to type in the name and number of your plot, and every document that has to do with it will appear.
“We have made ownership of Land in the State simple that all you need to do, no matter the part of world your are, is to log into the computer and you get every information for every plot of land in the state” Nwosu posited.
He stressed that the Ministry is “talking” with owners of Area K and Ekwema Lands, so that in the end, the land will benefit the people, adding that he wants a situation where the lands would be developed for the populace.
“If Factories, Hospitals and other businesses are sited on such lands, they will outlive the Okorocha administration, and also the people will be employed” he hinted.
Commissioner Nwosu asked Trumpeta to at all time engage in constructive Journalism, by criticizing when necessary and also praising the Government when it does the good one.
