Pro Bono I passionately request all social media comrades, whether OMG or OMC to pay attention to this and not politicize the matter. Please, this is not meant to score any political points and I pray no one uses this to throw any punches at any one. A situation I just learnt about has touched me in no small way, hence I decided to bring this to the attention of all of us and that of the Imo state government. I met a man in his late 50s two days ago and he told me a story that filled me with anger and pity. He runs a printing press in Owerri. Long before his children grew up to secondary school age, he managed to acquire a piece of land around Emmanuel College layout; he started a one-year-one-block system and managed to put up a storey building. This was where he raised his family while running his printing business. About two years ago, the present Imo state government claimed that the area was meant to be a green verge according to the master plan of Ndubisi Kanu. He presented documents from the relevant government agencies permitting him to build there. This man had bought this piece of land from the former chairman Owerri municipal council Emma Odor who had become a political foe to the Rochas-led government after 2011 elections. Imo state government wasted no time in bulldozing all the houses in the area, leaving this man, his family and other people without shelter. The man was forced to distribute his family to relatives and friends in Owerri while he sleeps inside his shop...till date. He could not relocate to the village (Mbaise) because that would close down his business and deprive his children education. He has since started a bungalow structure on a land at Naze he acquired several years back. As at today he has only managed to finish the foundation works; and his family remains scattered. When he approached the government afterwards, he was told to update his tax payments and pay some other fees totaling about 130, 000 naira after which he would be compensated with another piece of land. He has made all the payments yet two years on nothing has come his way. The best he got were promises from the commissioner for Land Hon Uche Nwosu. Now I have gone to the area and indeed the governments action has made the area cleaner and more orderly. I would like to use this medium to appeal to the Imo state Governor to reach out to this man and others so affected and assist them to resettle themselves and families. These innocent citizens should not be the immediate and ultimate victims of political battles. Dear comrades, let us ignore our political differences and share this with the intention of getting the Commissioner for Lands and the Governor to extend charity to these innocent imolites.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 15:04:08 +0000
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