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By Madu Obi
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA), Ossy Onuko has said that he already has over 20 cases hanging on his neck in an effort to realize the Awka Smart City as envisioned by the state governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo.
Onuko, who was presenting the one-year scorecard of his service as ACTDA Chief Executive Officer, said
the court cases were as a result of different enforcement activities carried out by the agency in its bid to control development in the Awka Capital Territory.
Explaining that development would always come with price and sacrifice, the ACTDA boss said, however, that the agency would not be deterred or distracted by the lawsuits.
According to him, members of the agency will continue to carry out their duties in accordance with the law that established and guides its operations.
He listed some of the programmes, projects and initiatives so far launched and executed by the agency in collaboration with other relevant private and public institutions to include developing, beautifying, and transforming the Awka City and other areas under the Capital Territory.
Onuko named some of the organizations working with ACTDA to achieve its objectives to include Operation Zero Potholes, Operation Clean and Green Awka and Dobe Awka Ọcha, adding that Governor Soludo has also created a committee known as the Awka Capital Territory Clean and Green Committee, all aimed at making Awka a real smart mega city.
He added: “We have also established a waste management programme for every market in the Capital Territory. In the aspect of street trading, we are very much worried about it and we are doing much to end it,” he said.
Onuko, who said that the agency has assumption of office, demolished many shanties, just as he explained that government has launched another initiative called Solution Arena, under which the government is building makeshift shops and open stalls where the shanty owners and street traders can be transferred to.
He also said that as a result of constant enforcements by the agency, such as demolition of illegal/unapproved structures and recovery of government lands from land grabbers; many developers and investors who want to build within the Capital Territory now come to get approval from the agency before doing any thing, adding that over one thousand developers have come to ACTDA in the last one year to seek approval of their projects.
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