Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, yesterday, inaugurated the Unity Park, Enugu, newly developed by his administration for public use as a tourist attraction and a place for relaxation. The development was in line with Ugwuanyi administration’s urban renewal drive.

Inaugurating the park amid jubilation by residents and tourists, Ugwuanyi said the project offers the good people of Enugu State an opportunity to relive the past when the city urbanisation had not obliterated its recreation areas.

The governor said his administration through the development of the Unity Park located adjacent to the popular Michael Okpara Square, Independence Layout, Enugu, responded to a yawning gap in the lifestyle of the coal city.

He disclosed that the park has a reinforced concrete pedestrian walkway measuring about 1.9 kilometers, monumental concrete roaring lion sculpture measuring 42 feet high, 72 feet long and 24 feet wide aired-conditioned spacious interior that seats about 50 persons, and a large water pond deep enough to offer the hydrodynamics for boat riding, among other interesting features.

Noting that it was widely believed that the sculpture of a giant roaring lion at the park currently interrogates existing world records on lion sculpture, Ugwuanyi revealed that his administration has applied to World Records Organisations to review this and allocate to the state its rightly place in world history.

Earlier in his welcome address, the State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Hon. Ugonna Ibe, commended Ugwuanyi for the landmark feat in enhancing Enugu State’s status in local and international tourism.

According to him: “After the demise of the Zoological Garden and Polo Park, the state lacked a recreational park to satisfy the ever un-quenching relaxational needs of both local and international tourists that visit Enugu in large number.”