The Control Post is undoubtedly the nerve centre of Owerri
Metropolis. Situated in front of the
magnificent Maria Assumpta Cathedral, the Control Post ushers entrants from Port Harcourt and Onitsha
into the State and links them also to other adjourning streets inside the city.
Because of its strategic location, it has been observed that any
hold-up (traffic jam) that emanates from Control Post usually affects other
parts of Owerri Metropolis. Perhaps, this was the reason why this spot in Imo,
the Eastern Heartland bears the name Control Post.
When our reporter visited the area on Wednesday, he discovered that
since the inception of the administration of Chief Rochas Okorocha as the
Governor of Imo State, the atmosphere at the area has degenerated into total
lawlessness. From being a small park, it is becoming not only a big park but
much noticeably a bubbling market square.
The chaos, noise and dirts experienced in the area recently do not worth
the name and location.
Some residents in the area who spoke to The Leader said they feel
ashamed to be identified with today's Control Post. They said the situation now
makes them to recall with nostalgia how Control Post looked during the Ikedi
Ohakim's administration and wonder if ENTRACCO that operated then is still the
same ENTRACCO we have today.
A concerned citizen who lives at Control Post expressed his
disappointments in these words: “The ENTRACO that existed during the
administration of Chief Ikedi Ohakim and the one operating now does not seem to
be the same. This is because Control
Post at the time of Ohakim, with Willy Amadi at the helm of ENTRACO affairs,
was quite cleaner and more aesthetically appealing than it is today. If there is one area the Ohakim regime
distinguished itself, it was in the area of cleanliness. But the tempo has drastically dropped with
cars freely and randomly parked indiscriminately in the city with no qualms of
conscience. One major instance of this
chaos is what you are seeing here at the Control Post.”
Our investigations revealed that the Control Post has become a
flourishing motor park as touts have taken over both the Onitsha Road and Port Harcourt axis of the area, operating as
if there is no government in power. Long queues of vehicles at the NNPC Mega
Station along Onitsha Road
have further worsened the chaotic situation in the area. Hawkers of different capacities selling,
calling cards, pure water, fruit juice, bread, fruits and other products litter
the roads and make nauseating advances at those managing the little spaces out
of the crowded place. Big trucks
returning from Onitsha and Port Harcourt make Control Post their
comfortable converging point. They park carelessly at the main road and go to
help themselves in the eating and drinking spots that operate beyond
midnight.
A motorist who queued up at the NNPC Mega filling station to buy
fuel told The Leader that, “The moral threats which undoubtedly affect the
young students of Holy Ghost College
and Rochas Foundation College
by what I see at Control Post are cogent issues that need to attract the
attention of the government.”
Our correspondent gathered from what is on ground that no healthy
academic activity can go on in a chaotic environment as the Control Post. High
level of prostitution goes on there at night. Touts and pick pocketers rove the
place. Wastes from fast food joints in the area are channeled into the gutters
leading to Assumpta Cathedral thus creating nauseating odour.
Another resident, Ogechi, wondered why the present administration
scrapped off the beautiful green lawn planted by the Ikedi Ohakim
administration along Holy Ghost College fence.
She observed that the place now serves as a defecating ground, motor
park and a joint for prostitutes. Bread
hawkers and food vendors line up in make shift stands all the way towards the
cathedral roundabout.
Another source who deals on MTN cards and commercial calls in the
area described the place as incredible. He told The Leader that Control Post
needs urgent rescue.
Our reporter noted that illegal structures, shanties and makeshift
structures destroyed by the last administration have not only sprang up but are
expanding in scope. The place has simply
become mini-market. What sincere residents and popular road users of Control
Post are asking for is either that the government of Rochas Okorocha should let
Imolites know that the Control Post has officially become a new market centre
in Imo or come to rescue the place from imminent catastrophe. Further delay, they insisted, could be very
disastrous.
