Abia seals illegal buildings in public schools, vows to recover lands 

The sealing of the buildings located at All Saints Secondary School, Ogbor Hill, Aba, and other areas of the city, was carried out in an exercise supervised by the Town Planning Authorities of Aba South, Aba North, Osisioma Ngwa, Obi Ngwa and Ugwunagbo local government areas.

The team inspected defective buildings at the Ekeoha Market (Shopping Centre) where they ordered they should be demolished and unapproved structures at Samek Market near Ariaria International Market.

Addressing newsmen after the exercise, the Special Adviser to Governor Alex Otti on Aba Urban Rejuvenation, Uche Ukeje, said the Governor in keeping with his campaign promise of restoring the past glory of Aba, has decided that the era of doing things outside laid down rules was over.

Ukeje frowning at how estates were springing up in some public schools said some years back, the government of Abia State decided to borrow a leaf from what happened in a neighbouring state to hand over schools to missionaries or those it referred to as the original owners.

He regretted that in the process, things were inappropriately done and the handover processes were not completed.

Ukeje said it was unfortunate that the aim of handing over such schools was largely defeated. “Those people did not go in there to run schools. They went in there and started selling land. The final certificate of handover was never issued as the process was never concluded.”

He said the government was going to recover any landed property of public schools bought by individuals.

Ukeje, however, said that based on the perceived anomaly, government cannot do anything now until it gets recommendation from the Ministry of Education.

He disclosed that Abia Government under the leadership of Otti plans to recover and transform Aba, the commercial hub of the state into a modern city, promising that would not be done irrationally, but would follow due process.