Senate threatens Okorocha over land encroachment

The Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha has been asked to refrain from demolition and encroachment on federal government properties in the state.

Chairman of Senate Committee on Industries, Senator Sam Egwu handed the warning to Okorocha while inspecting some projects executed by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in the state.

Egwu claimed that the state government had encroached on part of SMEDAN land in the state.

“We came to inspect SMEDAN projects in Imo as part of our oversight functions and we noticed that the governor has demolished a federal government property and built a new house on it,” Egwu said.

Adding: “We are going to write the senate on the development and we must communicate our stand to the governor because we will not let him take SMEDAN property.

But in a swift reaction, Governor Rochas Okorocha’s Media Aide, Mr Sam Onwuemedo, denied the allegation of encroachment, saying the land in question belonged to Imo government.

But, Egwu said the committee would communicate to the senate leadership its observations on the land.

“I don’t believe that Okorocha was aware of this encroachment, but if he is, it is most unfortunate,” Egwu said.

He charged officials of Imo Industrial Development Centre (IDC) to always protect government properties from land grabbers.

The committee chairman said he was impressed by the level of projects at the IDC, and would make recommendations for more funds to be appropriated to the developmental projects in SMEDAN.

The Director General of SMEDAN, Mr Dikkumany Radda, said the ministry was committed to improving industries in Nigeria, adding that it would continue to encourage entrepreneurship in the country.

Radda expressed worries over the demolition of IDC property by the state government but said that the ministry would do everything possible to recover the property.

The Coordinator of Industrial Development Centre, Mrs Chinyere Woke, told the committee that agents of the state government, without any notice, entered the land and demolished the structure in it.

Woke said that members of the staff were threatened by Okorocha not to resist the takeover of the land.

She, however, added that the centre had communicated the development to appropriate authorities for action.

However, some people in the state were of the opinion that Okorocha’s action was a deliberate taking of pound of flesh for the problem he’s currently having with government at the centre over opposition to imposition of his son-in-law as APC governorship candidate in the state.