We Don’t Demolish People’s Property —  ACTDA MD

By Raymond Ozoji, Awka

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA) Hon. Ossy Onuko has said that his agency does not demolish people’s property at will but help in development control in the capital territory.

Onuko also said that Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo is committed to developing Awka Capital Territory.

Onuko, who spoke exclusively with this reporter in his office in Awka, said Governor Soludo is embarking on urban renewal and regeneration for the capital territory judging from the massive dualization of roads in Awka, the building of Solution Fun City in Awka as well as other development plans intended to confer a befitting status to the capital city and the capital territory respectively.

Onuko, who disclosed that the capital territory extended to 23 other communities near the state capital, said his agency is assisting the state government in development control and to ensure that people build according to development codes and laws with necessary approvals and directives from the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA).

He said ACTDA doesn’t embark on willful destruction of houses and people’s property but helps government in the enforcement of laws that would enthrone sanity and orderliness in the erection of structures in the capital territory.

Onuko said enforcement is in top gear and that the law allows 7 days or 14 days notice depending on how severe and detrimental the structures are to the welfare of the general public. He said ACTDA has intensified enforcements and there are no preferential treatments or sacred cows in the course of her enforcements.

He said the newly reinvigorated ACTDA under his watch has curtailed the culture of impunity in the erection of structures and has made people to come for approvals before they embarked on any building project in the capital territory.

He said people now understand that for Awka to be an ideal capital city that would compete with other capital cities across the globe, they must play by the rules which he said is what ACTDA has been established to do.

That ACTDA is not selective in enforcements and that he has done more enforcements in Awka where he hails from even as he made it categorically clear that ACTDA is not witch-hunting anybody.

Onuko also disclosed that government pays compensations where it is absolutely necessary but compensations, according to him, can not be paid where the offender didn’t play by the rules. That someone cannot go into government land and build and expect to be compensated if such structure is removed.

He said Soludo is out to develop Awka and ACTDA is there to give him maximum support. According to Onuko, ACTDA does not have touts but certificated civil servants who applied utmost civility and decorum in the discharge of their duties.

The ACTDA helmsman maintained that rather than use touts and miscreants in the execution of her mandates, they employed the services of security agencies where they have forceful enforcements to carry out.

He therefore emphasized that the primary duty of the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA) is to protect the overriding interest of the general public as it concerns adherence to stipulated rules and regulations in the building of houses and erection of properties in the capital territory in line with the mission and vision of Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo to create a liveable, lovable and prosperous homeland for Ndi-Anambra.