Imo: Trouble As Ihedioha, Okorocha Clash Over Collapsed Hotel; Uzodinma Investigates

By Adesina Soyooye

The project was meant to usher in joy to Imo people. It was meant to bring employment to the teeming unemployed youths in the state. Why not?

It was to be a five-star hotel, the whole of eight-floors. Nobody had seen a project of that magnitude in the whole of Igbo land.

The biggest industry in the state is the hospitality industry. Too many hotels. But this was to be like no other. It was going to be a major attraction – better than the famed Concorde Hotel, when Concorde was Concorde, not the unbelievable ugly shadow of itself that it is now no thanks to the abracadabra by successive Imo governments before the Ihedioha administration.

But it was not be.

Last week, the dream came crashing, and ended in tragedy. Still under construction, up to the eight floor, it came crashing like a pack of badly packed cards. The gigantic project took along with it 15 souls, mangled in the rubble. And some others injured. There are speculations that a couple of people may still be under the rubble.

The collapse of the structure shook the state.

What happened?, everybody asked.

According to Professor Samuel I.J. Onwusonye, FNIQS, a high profile Quantity Surveyor, “The client did not make use of appropriate and experienced professionals to advice on the best materials for such a gigantic project.

“Furthermore, specifications and supervision, including the cost implications, were not adequate. Hence during  construction the contractor/ developer wanted to deliver the project by cutting corners”

The former COREN, Chief Inspector, Imo State Chapter, Engr Chris A. Ibe, FNSC, is of the opinion that this disaster could have been avoided if the relevant departments of the Owerri Capital Development Authority, OCDA,  had approved the designs of the building before construction”

But the tragedy has triggered allegations and counter allegations of criminal negligence between the two biggest political parties in the state – the ruling APC and the main opposition, PDP.

As soon as the building collapsed, not a few Imolites put the blame on former Governor Rochas Okorocha. They said the approval for the construction was given during his governorship of the state.  And that he must be held responsible for the tragedy.

They argue that if the project was not approved by his government, there was no way it would have taken off. “Okorocha is responsible for this tragedy”, the people chorused.

But Sam Onwuemedo, Okorocha’s irrepressible Special Assistant on Media, has cried foul.

In a Press release, he pushed it back to the immediate past  Government of The Rt Honourable Emeka Ihedioha. He said that his Principal’s administration never approved of the project. He said that what was tabled before Okorocha, which he claims was never approved, was a six-floor hotel project, not eight floors. He insisted that the developer began the project without approval.

He also revealed that the project was started in April 2018, but was  stopped by Okorocha, only for work to resume as soon as Ihedioha was sworn-in as Governor.

Onwuemedo: “The truth of the matter is that the government of Rochas never gave approval for that building or project which began in April, 2018. They came with the application for approval, but the approval was never given because government insisted on seeing all the necessary documents with regards to the building. And we want anybody with any counter verifiable claim to come up with it.

“In their application, they had talked about six floors building, and not eight floors. And the government then demanded for all specifications before the approval could be given.

They were not forthcoming, but went ahead with the project. And when the government saw that the project was going-on,  it ordered that it should be stopped.

“That was the situation until Chief Ihedioha’s government came on board. Nobody knew what those concerned told Ihedioha that made him to ask them to continue with the building.

“Under Ihedioha’s government, the owners of the building did not only continue with the building, with suspicious speed, but exceeded the six floors as was contained in their application, and made it an eight-floor structure.”

But in a stinging response, a prolific writer, and an  ardent Ihedioha supporter, Ogu Bundu Nwadike, poo-pood Onwuemedo’s submissions.

Giving reasons why Okorocha should be held squarely responsible for the nightmare that is the collapsed project, he asked pertinent questions.

Nwadike: “Is it in Imo, under the watch of Rochas Okorocha, with such agency as the Owerri Capital Development Authority(OCDA), that an approval for a building construction is not given, and yet, the builder started from foundation to DPC, to lintel, to decking, up to six-floors without any interception by OCDA? It’s impossible.

“Does Rochas want anybody to believe that the eight-storey building was erected from foundation, and raised to eight storey within the seven months in office of His Excellency, The Rt. Hon. Ogbuagu Emeka Ihedioha, KSC, FNIST?

“We hope Rochas will stand and tell the Investigative Panel that he denied a building  in the heart of the Eastern Heartland, and a citizen still went to commence building.

“Every goat and chicken in Imo state, nay Owerri, knows that for setting up common wood or metal batcher, or container anywhere in Owerri during Rochas’ fearful and tearful era without approval, OCDA would have taught the defaulter what fire does with the ward of a rat”.

Nwadike went on to say that what happened to the project is in line with all the projects Okorocha executed in the state. They are all failed projects, he lamented, recalling that the Princess Hotel, Okigwe, a project of the Okorocha administration, also collapsed.

All the projects, he insisted, failed integrity test, including, the Imo International Conference Centre, IICC, Bongo Square, Hero’s Square and the Freedom Square.

The roofs have all been blown off, he revealed.

“All the roads hurriedly painted with charcoal  by Rochas and his contractors failed,” Nwadike further lamented.

Sources, however, told this magazine that the eight-floor hotel project has been on for, at least, five years, and counting.

This magazine could not confirm what the penalty for such collapsed  project/building is in Imo state. But such collapses are not exclusive to Imo state.

In Lagos, the penalty includes the forfeiture of the plot to the government by the developer, and his prosecution along with the contractor and all approving authorities.

The shocked and mourning Imo people are,  depending on the State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, to set up, quickly, the promised investigation into the tragedy.

Noted Nwadike: “Fortunately, the Uzodinma regime has promised to investigate the circumstances surrounding the collapse of the building. We hope that Okorocha will not dodge to appear before the Panel as he has been dodging all the other panels and Commissions”.

Imolites await the story behind the collapse of a project that would have changed the skyline of the State had it come to fruition.