By Anastasia Agunwa
The Anambra State House of Assembly has adopted the recommendations of its Public Petitions Committee’s report as working documents during plenary on the floor of the State legislation.
This was sequel to petitions considered by the legislators at the ‘Committee of the Whole’ chaired by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Somtochukwu Udeze, where two significant rulings were adopted through voice votes.
The House has indicted Onitsha South Mayor, Hon. Emeka Orji, for illegal land acquisition, ordering him to stay off a property belonging to Chief Sabest Uchenna Uzoeto and pay for damages.
The Assembly’s Committee on Public Petitions at the committee’s sittings found out that the Mayor acted beyond his powers, as only the Governor of the State can acquire property for overriding public interest.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Udeze who presided over the plenary commended the Committee for its thorough investigation, which established that the property belongs to Chief Uzoeto. The Mayor was ordered to pay for all items sold or damaged during the demolition.
In a separate matter, the Assembly investigated a petition against the Caretaker Chairman of Nkpor Butchers Association, Mr. Patrick Friday Onyia, and recommended the dissolution of the caretaker committee.
The Petitioners alleged gross violations of rules and regulations, including the appointment of unregistered persons as Exco members, seizure of shop allocation papers, and harassment of market stakeholders.
The Assembly’s findings confirmed that some unregistered persons were indeed appointed to the Exco and that the tenure of the Exco is one year. Moreover, it was found that people from Enugu State, particularly Ozalla, have been ruling the market since 1980.
The Assembly, therefore, recommended that the office of the chairman should not be monopolized by people from Enugu State, the immediate dissolution of the caretaker committee and conduct of fair and just elections as well as the return and restoration of shops held by the caretaker chairman to their lawful owners.
These rulings demonstrate the Assembly’s commitment to integrity, transparency, and citizen-centricity.
The Chairman House Committee on Public Petitions, Hon. Obi Nweke had in his submission explained that after some findings, that it was discovered;
“That the rule of the Association states that only registered members are allowed to slaughter cows inside the market so as to enable the Association to know who is legal, when a stolen cow is slaughtered, when a dead cow is being sold and by who.
”That the Secretary of the caretaker committee and Financial Secretary, Mr. Chika Obasi and Cyprian Ngoka are not registered members of Nkpor Butchers Association but are allowed to do business there.
The Committee recommended that the acting Chairman of the market should return and restore all the shops being held by the present chairman to those who lawfully paid for it especially those of the petitioner.
They also maintained that the office of the Chairman constantly occupied by people from Enugu state is wrong.
Anastasia is of the Ministry of Information, Anambra State
