Rivers, Church bicker over C of O in Greater Port Harcourt City

CONTRARY to claims that the new city authority in River state refused to issue Certificate of Occupancy to a christian organization – Omega Power Ministries (OPM) in Port Harcourt, the leadership of the agency has denied the allegation.

  The administrator of the Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority, Mrs. Aleruchi Cookey-Gam, explained that OPM has not submitted any application for certificate of occupancy in respect to their parcel of land at Mbodo Aluu to the State’s Lands and Survey, which is legally saddled with the responsibility of issuing the certificate.

   It would be recalled that the General Overseer of OPM, Apostle Chinyere Chibuzor, had during the visit of the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, had alleged that the church had made series of applications for certificate of occupancy from the Rivers State Government, since 2010 but to no avail. 

  Wike during his campaign to the church had promised to review the Greater Port Harcourt City project and issue certificate of occupancy to the church within 48 hours to the church if elected in April’s governorship election.

  Worried about the politicization of the issue, Cookey-Gam, said OPM indeed sometimes ago submitted application for charting of its parcel of land to the Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority, which is responsible for planning and regulating development of lands in the new city. She however added that the coordinates used in carrying out OPM’s survey were faulty and as such the survey plan could not be used for charting. According to her, OPM was advised to submit a new survey plan, which they failed to do for a long while, as the church complained about the huge expenses that it would incur with reengaging private surveyors.

  The administrator said that the church subsequently submitted a new plan, which was used in charting and verification of their land. Based on the result of the charting, it was discovered that OPM’s land impacted on the right of way for the electricity transmission line from Rumuosi substation to Phase 1 of the new city next to the newly built Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium.

  “The authority has held several meetings with OPM advising them on the extent of the impact to enable them prepare their conceptual layout plan. OPM finally submitted the conceptual layout plan to the authority by their letter dated December 16, 2014. The authority has also formally written to OPM in January 2015 confirming that the conceptual layout plan is acceptable in principle. OPM was also requested to submit their application for outline planning permit to the authority. We are yet to receive any application from OPM,” she said.

  Cookey-Gam insisted that the authority has a responsibility to serve the interest of all citizens of Rivers State, non-indigenes, private, local, national and international stakeholders irrespective of gender, creed, race ethnic and other backgrounds. As such, she argued that the alleged case of discrimination and partiality or refusal to grant the church a certificate of occupancy was baseless, as the authority does not have such statutory power in the first place.