By Jennifer John
Imo State government has said that it has gotten an interim court order which has given former governor Rochas Okorocha and members of his family up to April 21 to come forward and prove ownership of the properties listed in the white paper of the judicial commission of enquiry into lands and other related matters to have been illegally acquired or forfeit them forever.
The state commissioner for information, Declan Emelumba disclosed this to government house press crew after the state executive council meeting on Wednesday.
He said the ministry of lands which has been empowered by the government to implement the white paper of the commission of Inquiry into lands and other related matters, was seriously implementing the recommendations of the white paper.
Emelumba said the state’s executive council also directed that the Ekwema Crescent estate land where an estate was built, should be recovered and returned to the original owners whose Certificate of Occupancy was never revoked by the Okorocha administration when it allotted the land to an individual for the estate project. “Anything built on the land is their own because ab-initio it is their land”
Other properties to be recovered from the Okorochas according to Emelumba included; the IBC quarters in Orji which Okorocha used for the building of Rochas Foundation Africa.
According to Emelumba, all the distortions on the land mapped out for the building of new Imo State government house at new Owerri must be corrected, as all illegal structures there must be demolished to maintain the original plan. He disclosed that Imo was prepared to receive the COVID-19 vaccines from the federal government, as 305 solar powered refrigerators for the 305 INEC wards in the state are on standby for the vaccines and will immediately embark on the vaccination.
