By Eric Ugbor

ABA—Piqued by the distortion of the master plan of Aba, Abia State government has vowed to restore the original plan of the city if efforts at developing it would yield any fruit.

File photo: Mountain of refuse in one areas in Aba

To ensure that the master plan of Aba and Umuahia were achieved, government assured it would muster the political will- power and partner the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, NITP.

Abia State governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu who stated this in Aba at the third annual luncheon of  NITP, Abia State chapter stressed that without adequate and effective implementable planning, there was nothing any government could do to impact positively on urban areas.

Ikpeazu who was represented by his deputy, Chief  Ude Okochukwu regretted that since the colonial masters left, not much had been done in the area of effective planning of cities.

Explaining that more than half of the 17 Local Government Councils in the state were situated in the urban areas, the governor noted that without proper planning of these areas, government’s quest of achieving her five pillar programmes would be a mirage.

Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Chief Martins Azubuike who was chairman on the occasion noted with sadness that Abia state is experiencing great environmental degradation through non proactive town planning.

Azubuike, who was represented by his Chief of Staff (CoS), Godwin Iroegbu however expressed delight that the present administration in the state was going to tackle the problem.

Nelson Nwaosu, chairman of the LOC said the choice of this year’s event –”Improving the Quality if Life of Abians Through Physical Planning” was apt as cities were known to be engines of growth and centres of innovation for nations and states.