By Baron Ike
Barely one year governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State was said to be gripped by demolition madness, he is at again at the Shell Camp Quarters, Orlu Road Owerri, pulling down structures of retired civil servants and rendering most of them homeless and helpless.
Already, there is panic in the Owerri capital city over the demolition which the affected persons said came to them by surprise.
Cries for help from most of the affected pensioners rented the air on Sunday, July 2 when they told whoever cared to listen that Okorocha has ignored the fact that their property was sold to them by the federal government, and that they all have their certificate of occupancy (C-o-O) to show for ownership of the property.
When Armadanews.com visited the site of the demolished Shell Camp, property belonging to the pensioners were seen littered all over the place with the rain beating them.
“I bought this house from the federal government years back and I have my C-o-O to show for ownership. They have demolished my fence, my boys quarters and there is a bulldozer right in front of my house now, and I do not know the purpose after today. They brought miscreants weilding Dane guns and smoking weed to come and threaten us, and you wonder why a government would do such a thing if what they are doing is right,” one of the civil servants told Armadanews.com in a telephone chat on Sunday.
The pensioner further said that the government did not give them notice neither were they told any plans for compensation assuming government genuinely wants to take over their property for any infrastructure development.
However, there are insinuations that Okorocha is using force to acquire the property on that axis in what looks like his expansionist quest because of his hospitalist interest in the place. One of his hotels, Larmonde, which is already firmly seated near Shell Camp on several plots of land, but those who ought to know say the governor may still be interested in acquiring additional plots in the area.
There is no Commissioner for Land and Property or even Works for now in Imo State to speak on the matter as Okorocha is yet to reconstitute his cabinet after disbanding it last month.
But a government official who spoke to us said he was not competent to speak on the recent development not withsatnding that he is an insider. However, he said the Shell Camp property in question belongs to Alvan Ikoku Federal college of Education which is a federal government institution.