The Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has announced that the Aba Urban Renewal Committee, the office driving the infrastructural renewal of the Aba metropolis, will now be elevated to a full-fledge government parastatal with the name, Aba Urban Renewal Authority.
The new agency will oversee the general rehabilitation work in Aba including waste management and revenue generation.
In a press release signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Godwin Adindu, Governor Ikpeazu said the elevation has become necessary so as to enable the committee exercise its functions with the full weight and backing of law as a government agency, adding that the agency will be instrumental to the fulfillment of the government policy in relation to the transformation and restoration of the city of Aba.
The Governor noted that the development is coming as a response to the good work the committee has done in restoring order and sanity to the city of Aba.
He observed that the Aba Urban Renewal Committee has been very committed to the task of driving the new programme of park reform, relocation of markets and eradication of street trading and has also done creditably well in enforcing government regulation as regards the demolition of illegal structures built on service lanes and on top of bridges.
The Governor also commended the Chairman and members of the committee for the able way they have enforced the new programme of reformation and upgrading of the markets to their original master plan which have ensured that illegal shops and other structures that distort the original plan are removed.
The Governor further noted that the vision of his administration is to develop the city of Aba as the capital of the Small and Medium Scale enterprise in Nigeria, stressing that the new agency will act as the vehicle towards the actualization of that dream.
He thanked the residents of Aba and the business operators for the unalloyed support and cooperation they have shown to the committee, and further urged them to be partners in progress with government in restoring the lost glory of the ancient city of commerce and trade.