When Abia State governor, Dr. Victor Okezie Ikpeazu promised the reconstruction of about seven roads in Aba as part of his administration’s commitment to address the challenges of bad road network in the commercial city, not many people factored in the pains that would accompany such venture. But less than a month into the implementation of the project, some residents and shop owners in some of the affected areas filled with mixed feelings.
Recently, over 50 shops built along Old Expressway were demolished in order to give way for the reconstruction of a road in the area.
The shop owners who said that they were happy over the determination of the state governor to ease the problem of access currently faced in the area are however calling on the government to pay them compensation.
They accused the state government of failing to dialogue with them especially as they followed due process of government approval before erecting their shops.
Some of the shop owners who spoke to journalists also accused Osisioma local government of misleading them into building on a land earmarked for road construction. They described the demolition as an economic waste and called for an investigation and prosecution of anyone found involved in such act of sabotage and illegality.
A shop owner, Mrs. Ngozi Nwokeke told reporters that the officials Osisioma local council gave consent for them to erect such structure.
Nwokeke said: “The local government staff even wanted to put in a third building on that lane but I shouted and called on the leaders of the line whose intervention stopped the move by the local government staff. I blame those workers in Osisioma local councils who knowing that the spaces were for road and drainage still took money and permitted the building of the shops. They are the people we are expecting to compensate us for deceiving us,” she said.
Another shop owner, Okafor Enyeribe, corroborating Nwokeke stated that he lost two shops in the demolition and claimed that he was unaware the shops were built on a part of the road.
Enyeribe said if he had been aware, he would not have bought some shops in those buildings and would have saved himself from incurring such economic loss. “The truth is this, from the allocation and the certificate they gave to us, the local government made it clear that every shop in this market belong to them and that we are just tenants.
So I don’t think the state government has any commitment here. If there is anything to negotiate, it should be between us and the Osisioma loclal government council”, he said.
Another victim who is a dealer in fibre said that the new set of shops which were demolished was built under the Orji Uzor-Kalu regime while Chief Allen Nwachukwu was the Chairman of Osisioma Local government council.
“When this place was built, it was only one line of shops that was built but the Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Council under Chief Allen Nwachukwu began to give people allocation for another set of shops in front on this one.
The local government of that time said there was much space in between the road and the other set of shops. That was how they began to give people permission to build shops in front of these shops. Now we are being told that the shops were built on the road but it was the local government of Osisioma that gave the permission to build on that space. So I believe that the owners of the shop should be paid and not left to bear the loss that was caused by the local government staff,” he said.