Alphonsus Nweze
Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has reassured the people of Onitsha and its envions that his priority is to make the state livable and prosperous.
Prof. Soludo spoke at Sharon House, GRA, Onitsha on Thursday when he met with Landlords and stakeholders in Onitsha and and adjourning communities.
Accompanied by his deputy and sizable number of his commissioners, the Governor said Landlords are critical to his agenda of turning around Anambra State.
He said Landlords should be able to channel the rainstorm in their compounds, clear the drainage channels in front and around their houses
Stressing that Government would partner with them, Soludo asked the landlords to pay the existing tenement rate in the state and assured that every kobo paid by the people of Anambra State would be accounted for.
The governor said he would want to tar every street in Onitsha and envions but people should corporate with his administration by paying taxes and relevant levies.
Lamenting the decay in public infrastructure in the state, Governor Soludo said the Greater Onitsha Water scheme has not only collapsed but vandalized by the citizens.
He stressing that his administration will digitalise lands and assets in the state.
“We will build Anambra State to the extent that when our people are being pursued in other places they can return back. I will make sure our people will not be under pressure to rush out of the state. We will have enough to make our people prosperous,” he assured.
The governor also said his administration would make law to prosecute civil servants who grant approvals for people to build on drainage channels and other illegal areas and the law will not exonerate those who built on those illegal areas.
Prof. Soludo said he would go back to M.I. Okpara’s era, where the Eastern NIgeria Government used resources form palm produce to fund the then government.
“It was palm produce that they used to build Onitsha, Enugu, UNN, Porthacourt, Calabar, Golden Guinea and others,” he said.
Soludo pointed that his government will give the communities Palm and Coconut seedlings to plant and in the next four to five years, they will be reaping the profit.
Some of the Stakeholders who spoke at the event were member representing Onitsha ll State Constituency, Hon Eddy Ibuzo,.a former member of the House of Assembly, Hon. Chugbo Enwezor, a legal practitioner, Mr. Azubuike Anizor among others.