AMAECHI APOLOGIZES TO NDIGBO FOR SEIZURE OF PROPERTIES

Rotimi Ameachi

Amaechi apologizes to Ndigbo for seizing abandoned land in Rivers and promises to pay owners compensation

The All Progressives Congress leader in Rivers State and former minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has promised to make amends for Igbos who lost property in the state during the Civil War.

Amaechi also expressed regret to Igbo ethnic nationals for the state's abandoned property issue following the 1967–1970 civil war, stating that they would eventually receive everything they had lost, including their homes.

The previous governor of Rivers State said that since the Igbo who abandoned their homes in Lagos and the North had them returned, there shouldn't have been a special case for those in Port Harcourt. Tonye Cole, an APC candidate for governor in Rivers State, and the state's Igbo community met with stakeholders, and Amaechi said, "I am sorry for the issue of abandoned properties. I have apologised to you when became governor and am still apologising. We are sorry.

"In the North, the Igbo, who returned after the war, were given back their properties, but here our people seized them and called them abandoned properties."