Otti renames Ossah road after Nigeria’s first military Head of State, Aguiyi-Ironsi

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

Expanded 6.5 kilometre Ossah Road-Okpara Square leading into Umuahia metropolis has been inaugurated and named after Nigeria’s first military Head of State, General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi.

Governor Alex Otti, announced the renaming of the road during its inauagration as a six-lane road performed by a former Chief of General Staff of Nigeria, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe.

Oti told the crowd which gathered to witness the commissioning of one of the signature raod projects embarked upon by his administration that the expansion project was conceived when he assumed office but was that he was seriously discouraged from starting it.

The project was flagged off on September 17, 2023 and was inaugurated on May 29, 2024, to mark the first year anniversary of the Otti-led administration in Abia.

Addressing the gathering, Otti said: “What we have come here to do today  is to Commission a six- lane road that we constructed between September 2023 and this period.

“I remember when we were sworn in, one of the first things that I wanted to do was to expand this road and make it look like an approach to a state capital.”

But he said all he received was discouragement from his close associates who said it would an herculean task. Narrating his experience, Governor Otti said: “Unfortunately, by the time I started engaging with my colleagues, a lot of them wanted to discourage me and they said it was going to be very difficult and that the compensation that needed to be paid was going to be huge.

“Besides, that there were some people who were going to raise serious resistance to moving their property backwards.

“Some of them, I was told, buried their grandfathers and great-grandfathers around this axis and that it was going to be an anathema to ask them to exhume the bodies of those legends and rebury them; so that I shouldn’t even try. I thought about it, I said no, I must try.”

In order to get around the project, he said he had to call the Ossah people to a roundtable discussion.

“We sat down with them and asked them questions: How would you love to feel if this road was expanded and made to accommodate more cars and Umuahia North begins to look like a proper capital city.” 

The outcome of the meeting was positive, according to the Abia Number One Citizen, who said trust was at the heart of the people’s fear.

“A lot of them were not objecting to it at all, with the discussions that we had. But I saw that the problem was trust because, from what they said, in the past, government will acquire their property with a promise to pay them and the compensation never came.

“So, we sat down, and we identified, I believe, about 135 buildings that were going to be involved in this demolition and we valued them and put everything on the table and all of them agreed that they were good value for their property.”

Otti further revealed that government, looking at the whopping sum to be paid as compensation, reached an agreement with the affected landlords to pay them in three branches.

“I looked at the total amount and found it was huge and I had an agreement with them, that we are going to pay in three instalments – 40 percent before we start work, 30 percent, three months down the line and then the remaining 30 percent, six months down the line.

“They were happy and they agreed. So, by the time the numbers started coming out, just before we started working, somehow, we found that we could pay the entire 100 percent before we started work. And that exactly we did.

“So, everyone whose property was affected received 100 percent of their compensation before we broke the ground and I am happy to report that rather than using Police and Army to get the buildings out, the people of Ossah actually removed their buildings themselves. 

“So, I want to use this opportunity to say Thank you to the people of Ossah. I want to thank you for the support. Indeed, you have been supporting not just the Ministry, but the Craneburgh Construction Company that has been working tirelessly to ensure that what we agreed was what was delivered.”

He therefore announced that the road has been renamed Aguiyi-Ironsi Boulevard, in honour Nigeria’s late first military Head of State, a son of Ibeku Clan in Umuahia, the capital city.

In his remarks, the Mayor of Umuahia North, High Chief Victor Ikeji, praised the Governor for achieving the great feat of expanding the Ossah road to six lanes in record time.

He recalled that the administration.that was in place in the state in 2008 embarked on expanding the road but only achieved adding just one lane after three years.

Traditional rulers and politicians who spoke during the occasion, commended the Governor and urged  him to continue to. serve the state diligently.