By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

Foundation For Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD) has urged the Abia State Governor-elect, Dr. Alex Otti, to look into the environmental degradation in the state and design a system for recovery and rebuilding the state.

The group, in a statement titled, “Mission To Rescue Aba” signed by its Executive Director, Comrade Nelson Nwafor, and made available to News Express on Thursday, April 13, 2023, set a three-point Agenda of Recover, Rebuild and Build (RRB) for the incoming Government of Dr. Alex Chima Otti.

The group emphasized more on Aba Recovery/Rebuilding, saying that there's no doubt that rebuilding or probably building Abia was one of the most difficult things for a leader to do, considering the number of years the state has suffered under “accidental leaders” who were never prepared to lead.

FENRAD explained the need to give Aba priority, stressing that recovering and building Abia State would not be useful if Aba was not on top of the agenda, considering the potential the city in Eastern Nigeria, Nigeria and entire Africa.

“For us at FENRAD as an Environmental advocacy group, we feel that the New Governor, Dr Alex Otti, has three missions in Aba. One of the missions is to recover, the other is to rebuild and the last is to build,” Nwafor said.

Giving details of the three-point agenda, FENRAD said: “This particular mission (Recovery) is necessary only in the Aba Crown Land (The Main Town). The reason why this particular place only needs recovery and not any form of rebuilding or building is that it’s the only well-planned territory dating back to the colonial era and still retains its plans despite encroachment.

“To be specific, from Factory Road, down to Weeks Road, cutting across the GRA, Eziukwu Road, Park Road, Pound Road, Milverton Avenue, Ojike Lane, St Michael's Road, Hospital Road, Jubilee Road, Azikiwe Road, Market Road, Tenant Road, Cameroun Road, Ehi Road, Clifford Road, School Road and Weeks Road.

“The majority of these roads in the Crown Land were well-planned stretches from the Aba Railway Portion of Ogbonnaya Road and Terminated at the Aba River by East Street. Other adjoining portions included in the Main Town that needs only recovery are Adazi Street, York Street, Ube Street, George's Street, Ochefu Street, Nsulu Street, Ndoki Road, Ulasi Road, Etche Road, East Street, Mosque Street, Danfodio Road, Akwete Street, Old Court, Okwunauka Street, Kent Street, Asa Triangle, St. Joseph, Scotland Crescent, Hollwel Crescent, Constitution Crescent and River Layout.

“It is worthy to note that all these roads and streets mentioned were well planned and are controlled by one Central Drainage that stretched around them all linking and connecting all of them from the Aba General Hospital, down to the Christ The King Cathedral (CKC), moved from Asa Triangle to School Road, down to East Street and emptied into the Aba River.

“There is still another connection from Margaret Avenue down to Constitution Crescent to Aba River which is the main reason why the Aba Main Town hardly witness any form of flooding except when the manhole visible displayed in the well-planned adjoining streets was blocked by reckless human behaviour and reckless government reconstruction works that made it impossible for storm water to move through those well-planned drainages.”

The group said that shops and many business centres now sit on the top of the drainages, especially in places like Hospital Road, Jubilee Road and Saint Michael's Road, making it impossible for any form of drainage evacuation to take place.

It stressed that the planned area of Aba must be recovered to make it inhabitable again while funds for the building would be channelled to areas that need it.

According to the group, another thing that needed to be recovered in the Crown Land (Aba Main Town) was the existing empty spaces of land in between each building (Sanitary Lane) which was mapped out by the British Town Planners for safety, sanitation and environmental friendliness.

“Today, the Sanitary Lane and the other empty space of land left at the back of each building in the Aba Crown Land have been encroached on by greedy landlords who have erected both boys’ quarters and shops on those spaces that made our city better and properly ventilated.

Let it not be twisted that the past governments in Abia supported this environmental terrorism by collecting approval from these people and equally charging them a fee called SANITARY LANE FEE which they pay to the Local Government every year for encroaching on that Lane which is not their land. This is one of the reasons why Aba Main Town is looking uninhabitable today.

“Another anti-environmental activity going on in Aba Crown Land that should be stopped to recover the land is the mass exodus of residents from the area as a result of the acquisition of the buildings for parking stores, clothing material shops, warehouses, tailoring shops, Tricycle Shops, Tricycle Accessories Shop, Engine Oil Shops, Phone accessories shops, printing presses, beverages and food items shops, mechanic villages and spareparts shops).

“All the above-listed activities are ongoing in places like St. Michael's Roads (Phone Accessories), Hospital Road (Electrical Accessories and Tricycle Shops/Warehouses), Jubilee Road (Tricycle Accessories and Engine Oil Shops), Pound Road (Kitchen Utensils Shops), Market, Tenant and Cameroun Roads (Beverages and Food Items Shops and Warehouses), Ehi Road (Printing Press), Clifford, School Roads and Echefu Street (mechanic villages and Spare parts shops).

“FENRAD has taken its time to study this development and we discovered that these activities have succeeded in making the Aba Crown Land uninhabitable for humans, thereby chasing people who cannot cope with semi-industries existing in their residential homes into places like Ogbor-Hill, Over-Rail, Osisioma, among other places, leaving a well-planned part of Aba meant to be residential area to suddenly become Small and Medium Enterprises centres which are why whenever businesses close, Aba Main Town will become a ghost town.

“This is also the main cause of the constant fire incidents we witness in the Main Town as the majority of the houses that were built as residential homes are now semi-industrial hubs housing machines that ought not to be there for any reason in the first place.

“It will interest you to know that well-planned Roads like Hospital, St Michael’s, Jubilee, Etche and Pound roads, despite their beauty, now house more goods than humans as rich businessmen are buying old houses pulling them down and building warehouses, malls; pushing out humans from a place they ought to dwell.

“This is why we deem it necessary to call on your government to recover Aba Main Town, restore it as human habitat first and show the people that they deserve a good environment while businesses should be relocated to areas mapped out for it by the previous government or the one your government can create.”

On Rebuilding, FENRAD listed areas like Over-Rail, Ogbor-Hill, Abayi, Ndiegoro, Uratta, Ohabiam, Omuma Road, Osusu Road, Faulks Road, Umule and all the areas where things were not properly placed before people, with the help of unscrupulous Local Government Town planners, started erecting buildings and shops recklessly, as areas of interest.

It explained that rebuilding calls for serious caution because a whole lot of things and people would be affected.

The group further stated: “Sir, we, however, urge you to employ the activities of experts in Town Planning and Environmental Studies with the help of the Abia Ministry and some Civil Society Environmental Groups (FENRAD) already in the system) to find a lasting solution to those areas because no plan was put in place at all before those areas were made human habitats.

“You need to visit some of these places in person to understand the expansion of Aba into these places over the years, especially the adjoining Streets along Ohanku Road, Obohia Road, Port Harcourt Road, Omuma Road, Osusu Road, Ngwa Road, Uratta Road, Umule Road, Okigwe Road, Faulks Road, Old Express, MCC Road, Emelogu Road, Opobo Road, Amaukwu Road, Powerline and Adindu Road were just a process of creating urban slums and not a city.

“These places have no planned drainage system, no defined line for the end of every building, no proper place for positions of sewage soakaway, and mostly, no perfect double space for an ordinary gutter to move storm water from one end to the other. These areas need serious rebuilding and it will take a serious and gradual process to achieve it in all areas where it is possible because some of them look absolutely irredeemable.”

The group further described “Building” as one that the Governor-elect has to seriously look into, saying that the expansion of Aba was seriously stretching deep down into Obingwa, Ugwunagbo, Ukwa East and Ukwa West local government areas with a spur to Isiala-Ngwa South, considering its proximity.

It added: “Many people in Aba are not aware that the city is currently expanding to Ukwa West Local Government Area through the Uratta-Obingwu Road, joining from the Aba-Port Harcourt Highway. It’s equally expanding through the Uratta-Ugwuati-Omumauzor Road and this is where proper planning is needed right now to avoid the errors in Ovom, Obuda, Aba-Ukwu, Asa-Okpuaja and major parts of Eziukwu (minus Crown Land) villages around Over-Rail.

“Aba is seriously and recklessly expanding from Iheorji, Owerri-Aba to Mkpumkpuevula and Umunkama axis of Ugwunagbo Local Government Area and will soon get to areas like Abayi-Nchokro if nothing serious is done to put proper planning in place now.

“It is also good to note that immediately after roads like Obohia, Ohanku, and Opobo are properly fixed, Aba will overnight link up with Ukwa East crossing Ugwunagbo easily because the distance between Ohuru Town and Umuagbai in Aba South is not far but made to look far due to the deplorable Obohia road. This is the same thing in the distance between Ovom in Obingwa and Azumini in Ukwa East, if Opobo Road is properly fixed.

“The deplorable state of these roads is the major reason why people are still restricting themselves to places like Umuojima, Umuode, Umuocheala, Umuaduru, Umuimo, Okpokoroala, Umuobo, Abayi-Ogbuliba and Abayi-Ariaria in Osisioma LGA. If nothing is done and fast too, these places will soon become like adjoining streets in Omuma Road, Ohanku Road, Obohia Road, Uratta Road and Port Harcourt Road without proper planning.”

The group also called for the creation of four extra standard motor parks around Flyover area of Ugwunagbo on the Aba-Port Harcourt Highway, Ndiegoro axis, Ogbor-Hill and Ariaria Area to ease the pressure on the Aba Motorpark in the Crown Land.

FENRAD promised to assist government in its environmental sustainability and recovery by continuously proving the government with workable initiative and technical support where necessary; to ensure that the dream of Abia recovery is achieved.

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