By Austin Ogwuda
NO fewer than 2,000 shops located on Niger Street, Fegge, Onitsha South local government area of Anambra State have been demolished on the orders of the State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as they were termed illegal structures.
The Townhall gathered that the demolition followed another occurrence of building collapse that took place on Saturday last week along Basden Street, Fegge, Onitsha apart from several others in recent past.
Although the said illegal structures were said to have been built by traders who claimed to have been given approval from the National Inland Waterways Authority to erect them but Soludo, during a visit to the area last week, stated that Waterways Authority has no authoruty to give such approval.
He therefore ordered the Chairman of Onitsha South Local Government, Chief Emeka Orji to demolish all the illegal structures, saying that the State government has declared war on illegal structures following the collapse of a five-storey building at Fegge in the same environment.
It was gathered that following the demolition which commenced on Monday, over 4,000 persons were affected while goods worth millions of naira were damaged in the process.
