Ururu-Aja my friend must be making mockery of the traders when he tagged the current Aba Shanty Centre as Aba Shopping Centre. The Market was rebuilt with modern facilities after it was burnt down by inferno decades ago. It had beautiful and well spaced lines of bungalow shops with designated park and loading area, children playground and open spaces for relaxation. It was the best market East of the Niger before 1999. Mine is an eye witness account. My father owned 3 shops in the Market and my family still retain them till date. It was indeed, Aba Shopping Centre.
After 1999, it became a rat race of ‘Fill All Blank Spaces’. People in power were using the instrumentality of Government to illegally allocate spaces to themselves and cronies to build shops. The transition from Aba Shopping Centre to Aba Shanty Centre took 24 years to complete. When the whole open spaces in the Market including the park, loading area and playground were completely built on and shared amongst those in power, they migrated to an unsafe and dangerous phase when the masterplan of the Market was further distorted and a storey building added on top of the bungalow structures originally planned and built in the market.
The scramble to sell and own more shops in the market by politicians took a rat race dimension. They used their contacts and positions in Government to approve the addition of an extra storey structure to convert the bungalow structures into 2 storey building shops. If they had succeeded in rigging the 2023 Election, they would be adding another layer to make it 3 storey on bungalow structure foundation.
It is on record that under Ex-Governor Ikpeazu, they used demolition order to shop owners and traders to heavily extort money from the poor shop owners and traders with threats to use the instruments of Government to dispossess them of their shops. They used the demolition order to coerce shop owners to accept the illegal addition of floors of structures on their bungalow shops until they effectively converted Aba Shopping Centre to Aba Shanty Centre. Traders operate in fear as building collapse became a recurrent norm around the Market.
The life of Abians was worth nothing to the Agents and cronies of the Government. They were sending Workers to early grave through the impoverishment of non-payment of salaries. Retirees were assisted to die faster through hunger of non-payment of pensions and traders were put at the risk of shop collapse. No wonder, My friend Ezemuo Dannie Ubani succinctly captured the PDP acronym as ‘Piri Dimgba Pigbuo’.
I cannot deny the fact that my Boss, Dr. Alex Otti is an Action Governor as rightly described by my friend Ururu-Aja. He is an Action Governor on the side of Abia State and the Welfare of the people. Governor Otti insisted that an alternative trade location must be provided for the traders who would be affected by the Remodelling of the Ekeoha Market to a proper shopping centre where they can ply their trade in safety and comfort.
Ururu-Aja in his essay was economical with the truth as usual. He refused to tell his readers that the traders were relocated to the GSM Market at Old Court just a stone throw from the Shanty Centre. The traders understood that the Governor meant well for them and started moving. Obviously, the relocation must come with some setbacks and inconveniences. No Pain, No Gain! People suffers some inconveniences when Roads are Reconstructed, Rehabilitated or Constructed but It cannot deter the Government from doing what they have to do for the welfare of the people.
It is called overriding public interest. It is better the traders live to come back and ply their trade than dying or being wounded by the rubble of collapsed building. From the information available the Government, it was the same Agents of Abia PDP who own many shops at the Shanty Centre that mobilized and went to court to stop the remodelling which would cost them few months of rent from the traders. They lied to the traders who had willingly relocated to the GSM Market to come back in the name of a court order with a lifespan of a week. In their usual selfish manner, they placed their shops rent over and above the safety and lives of the traders.
Ex-Governor Ikpeazu as admitted by Ururu-Aja as one of his closest aide and spokesman was a passive and weak Governor when it comes to the welfare of the people and the development of the State but very active when it comes to coveting and sharing public schools and spaces to himself and cronies, pocketing workers salaries and pensions of retirees.
He was a compassionate kind hearted teacher who was sleeping with his 2 eyes closed as Abia workers were owed between 6 to 33 months arrears of salaries and 45 months arrears of pension to senior citizens after slashing their entitlement to half.
Ururu-Aja without duress admitted that it took his principal over 5 years to do the right thing at Ariaria International Market but he eventually demolished the shops to remodel it. He must be the Original ‘Baba Go Slow’. He compassionately demolished buildings along Port-Harcourt and Omuma Roads without compensation and abandoned the inhabitants until he left office and nobody went to court.
What Ururu-Aja refused to say in his essay is that no person can dare approach the court for the fear of hoodlums being sent after him. No wonder the Ex-Governor compassionately used 7 years to complete one flyover just to minimise the inconveniences to commuters.
The Action Governor is Reconstructing the 2 Roads (where the passive Ex-Governor kindly demolished buildings) even during rainy season to bring back hope to the hearts of the inhabitants and property owners, pays compensation to property owners along any Road the Government is Expanding and Reconstructing (Ossah Road, Onuimo Road, Owerrinta Road, etc), paying retirees full pension as at when due, paying workers salaries including the so called non-core as at when due, defraying arrears of salaries owed by the compassionate and kind hearted Ex-Governor and provided alternative temporary space for traders affected by the long overdue demolition which Ex-Governor Ikpeazu’s men leveraged on to extort shop owners and endangered traders by building 2 storey building on top of bungalow structural foundation.
Ururu-Aja in his essay inadvertently explained why his boss could not repair Abia Roads, desilt the drains, remove the heaps of debris across the entire State and control street trading; He did not want to inconvenience the people as such exercise would naturally cause some discomfort and inconveniences to the public.
The option was to loot and plunder the resources to transform few persons into Emergency Billionaires without enterprise and allow the people suffer and smile. The people rewarded Ex-Governor Ikpeazu and his cronies on the 18th of March, 2023 for not causing them the inconveniences of Reconstruction, Construction, Rehabilitation of Roads, Desilting of Drainages and Evacuation of Refuse.
The people prefer an Action Governor and strong hearted man who pays salaries, pensions, compensates people whose properties are affected during expansion of Roads, Desilt drainages, Evacuate refuse, Reconstruct, Rehabilitate, and Construct Roads, Recover Public Schools from people who coveted them to private estate, retrofit hospitals, and put the State on the Global Map over and above a soft and kind hearted compassionate teacher who refused to pay fellow teachers, weaponised poverty and hunger, shared and plundered public resources with his cronies and left the State in ruins.
The Agents of the Old Abia are on standby with their usual 60% completion claim after the remodelling of Shopping Centre. All Abians and Nigerians are invited to visit the Shanty and Disaster in the waiting to happen at the current Shanty Centre which my pal Ururu-Aja is still calling Shopping Centre with straight face while demolishing heap of Akpu with Miri Ofe Akpuru-akpu Mgbam.
The pictures above represent the different between the OLD ABIA under my friend and brother Ururu-Aja and his compassionate arrears of salaries owing Boss and the NEW ABIA under Ukoha Njoku Ukoha, Feddy Ekeoma, Dodo Okafor and their salary paying and arrears of salaries defraying Action Boss.
Ururu-Aja, your man Feddy does not want to tour the World with public resources like during the Old Abia. He would have joined our Boss if he has a role to play. The Keynote Address at University of Buckingham can be performed by the Governor without any media aide. Why wasting the State resources like during the Old Abia days when an army of aides would have used public funds to go for site seeing. The New Abia is Here where the ways of the Old Order is not fashionable.
Ururu-Aja, I totally agree with you that the difference between Governor Otti and Ex-Governor Ikpeazu is 7up.
Ctz. Ukoha Njoku Ukoha, is the
Chief Press Secretary to the Executive Governor of Abia State.
