From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The Abia State government has sealed a more than 100-room shopping complex and two gas plants following the allegation the owners did not obtain approval before construction.
The shopping complex is located at Alaoji, near the Motor Spare Parts Market, while the gas plants are located at Asa Umunka and Owerre-Aba, all in the Ugwunagbo Local Government Area.
Equally, a house under construction in the middle of a Close joining Oriaku Street in the Umungasi area of Aba, as well as fences constructed on a road close to Abia State Teaching Hospital, Umueze, were also pulled down.
The owner of a building constructed in the middle of that road was given some time to dismantle the building or the government would pull it down.
The sting operation was carried out by officials of five Town Planning Authorities in Aba South, Aba North, Osisioma, Obingwa and Ugwunagbo Council Areas, led by their Executive Secretaries and personnel of Greater Aba Development Authority (GADA).
Speaking after the operation on behalf of GADA Director General, Uche Ukeje, the director of Town Planning in GADA, Okechukwu Okpara said the exercise was carried out to sanitize the city of Aba.
“Before now, people build houses indiscriminately in the city, you could attest to the fact that the building under construction that was pulled down and the one the owner was asked to dismantle was built in the middle of the roads and the present government can’t take that anymore.
“A lot of mess has happened in Aba before now and we want to correct them and correcting them is giving us a lot of headaches because realigning roads and structures is not easy, but we have to do them.”
Okpara said it was unfortunate that the owner of the shopping complex would be constructing such a gigantic project without, first of all, getting approval from the relevant government agency, the Town Planning Authority.
On the two sealed gas plants, Okpara alleged the owners refused to get government approval before embarking on such projects which he said shouldn’t have in the first place be sited in residential areas.
“The two gas plants sealed, not only that the owners did not get approval from the relevant government agency, they were also being constructed in residential areas which are not acceptable.”
Okpara debunked the assertion in some quarters that Town Planning Authorities were only concerned with buildings, adding that the present administration of Dr Alex Otti was going to make use of Town Planning Authorities to restore and improve on the master plan of Aba and other cities in the state.
He said the sting operation would continue until the present administration realized its plans of making Aba one of the most beautiful cities in Nigeria.