Re-partitioned Shell Camp Quarters
New buildings springing up at the area
By Baron Ike
New owners for the recently demolished Shell Camp Quarters in Owerri, Imo State have emerged.
Armadanews.com has just learnt that Governor Rochas Okorocha has re-partitioned the land and sells a plot for N50 million.
Most of the retirees the governor evicted from the Quarters had earlier expressed similar fear that Okorocha would hand over the choice property to his cronies after placing huge sums of money on the land.
During the weekend, it was learnt that money bags from the state and other politicians from the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) are the ones grabbing spaces in the prime Quarters originally occupied by retired civil servants and lecturers.
Those said to have allegedly 
acquired spaces in the place include Leo Stan Eke of Zinox fame, Paschal Dozie of Diamond Bank/MTN fame, minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, senator Ifeanyi Araraume, current Provost of the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, and two in-laws to Okorocha, Uche Nwosu (Governor’s Chief of Staff) and Professor Anwuka (Minister of Education, States), among others.
New structures are already germinating in the re-partitioned quarters which the government has firmly secured.
Armadanews.com learnt authoritatively that the civil society groups are warming up for action as some of the original owners of the Quarters have taken their case to them. One of the leading Civil society groups in the country told us that it would be in the interest of those seeking to buy land from the quarters to exercise caution if they do not wan to lose their money.
“This is my parent’s home at Shell Camp Quarters Owerri. Rochas forcefully evicted lecturers from Shell Camp recently. See the developments springing ip on the land,” a complainant told a Civil Society Group in apparent reference to the new structures being built by the new owners.
In July this year, Armadanews.com had reported exclusively that barely one year governor Okorocha was said to be gripped by demolition madness, he was at again at the Shell Camp Quarters, Orlu Road Owerri, pulling down structures of retired civil servants and lecturers and rendering most of them homeless and helpless.
There was 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 had ignored the fact that the 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 wanted to take over their property for any infrastructure development.
However, there were insinuations that Okorocha was using force to acquire the property on that axis in what looks like his expansionist quest because of his hospitality 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 withstanding 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.