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No issuance of Certificate of Occupancy ‘C of O’, and the necessary title deeds by the Abia State Government has been identified as the reason there is no federal secretariat in the state.
Member representing Ikwuano/Umuahia federal constituency at the House of Representatives, Hon. Sam Onuigbo, who disclosed this while featuring on a live radio programme in Umuahia, regretted that 30 years after its creation the state does not yet have a federal secretariat.
He said that worried by the development, he had confronted the Ministry of Works on the matter but was told that the land for it was encroached upon, and that the federal government needed another land for the project.
Rep Onuigbo said he later conveyed the position of the federal government to the state government, and also met with former Commissioner for Land, Mr. Suleiman Ukandu who informed him that the new land the state allocated for the Secretariat had no Certificate of Occupancy, ‘C of O’.
The lawmaker who said the federal government “is insisting on having the ‘C of O’ before it will commence the multi-billion Naira project”, pleaded with the State Government “to do the needful”.
“I have made spirited efforts to see that Abia has a federal secretariat but the state government has to do its part by allocating land that has C of O”, Onuigbo said.
The lawmaker further hinted that the deplorable Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene federal road from the Abia Tower/Express Junction of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway to Umudike, would soon be dualised by the federal government.
He said that the dualisation would address the perennial congestion and heavy traffic jam on the road.
Onuigbo said that he had been quietly following up on the proposal, and that very soon the survey would be done preparatory to the flag off of the project.
The Chairman House Committee on Climate Change, who expressed delight on the recent signing into law, the Climate Change Act which he sponsored, said the Act would help to address ecological challenges in the country.
He said that every nation was making efforts to transmit into green economy, stressing that Nigeria could not afford to be left behind.
The lawmaker who said that the effects of climate change were real, lamented that there are six active erosion sites in his community alone.
He noted that efforts were on to address the various ecological challenges in the constituency especially the Umunwanwa gully erosion site that exposed a petroleum pipeline that passed through the area.
Onuigbo said he had personally sponsored the engineering works on the project to facilitate its award and execution.
Rep Onuigbo who said that lawmakers from the district synergise to attract projects from the federal government expressed delight that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC had taken over the rehabilitation of the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene federal highway.
The lawmaker who said he had mounted much pressure on the federal government for the renovation of the road in the past six years, said that the project would soon be delivered as funds for it had already been set aside .
