The commencement of demolition of illegal structures/buildings in Imo state fixed for 2nd December, 2019, will no longer hold, Daily Nigerian Horn can authoritatively reveal.
General Manager of Imo Housing Corporation, Arc. Chidi Okoli disclosed this to Daily Nigerian Horn in Owerri on Tuesday.
Okoli revealed that reactions from Imolites in regard to the 2nd December 2019 earlier notice of demolition, necessitated the extension to end of first quarter of 2020.
According to the General Manager, the Imo state Government being a listening and people oriented administration, has harkened to the feelings of the people and thereby extended the date.
Okoli said extension of their operations to 2020 will provide enough time to defaulters to adjust and apply necessary corrections and assured that his operational team will ensure human face in it action.
“We’re a listening government, we want to partner with the people, we’ll listen to the people, we’ll give up to the end of 1st quarter of next year, we’ll commence in the second quarter. We’ll definitely not commence this demolition this year. We intend to give enough time to those who have infringe. I want to appeal to Imolites and our residents in all the estates to corporate with us because we’ll embark on sensible development in these estates.
“This idea of demolition prompted by the people because I have not less than 37 petitions and complains from people of different locations complaining about the estates and people infringing on the other people’s rights, building illegal structures, some people are building on drainage channels and all that. Imolites will see an Imo Housing Corporation that is people oriented and harkens to their requests of providing affordable houses to the people and that is the target of this new administration. I can’t afford to see people suffering any longer.” He promised.
Narrating his experience in the corporation, Okoli said “I met dilapidated structures, staff with low moral, arrears of 6 months salaries, Dept profile of over 65 millions, over 70 litigations and Court cases, I met more than 10 account garnished, nothing left in the corporation account, with a lot of problems and illegal acquisitions.”
“When we set to visit the estates, we met a whole lot of rots on ground, the so called estates were with no papers, no files, they created all these estates from the comfort of their homes and hotels, shared to people, funds that were accrued to government were just put into people’s account.
“Even recreational areas in some of these estates now turned out to avenue for hoodlums to perform their nefarious act, even drugs addict now taking shelter in such places, some estates green areas, recreational facilities were turned into commercial without approval from the authority, building beyond planning, so we met a whole lot of rots on ground. Based on experience and finding from these estates, we set up committee to look into some of these things.” He stated.
