Heroes’ Square lease: Daniel Kanu accuses Imo of violating agreement

Gibson Achonu

The Director of the Quest Resources Consults Limited, Mr. Daniel Kanu, has accused the Imo State Government of violating the Heroes’ Square lease agreement signed in 2012, by denying the company access to the property without any formal communication to the company.

Kanu, on Saturday, described the action of the state government as lawless.

He stated that the company had paid the state government N20m as the lease agreement, which is to run for 35 years.

However, five years after the lease agreement was signed, the state government allegedly had yet to honour it.

Kanu said, “The lease agreement was executed in 2012 under the Okorocha government and the agreement was signed by the Commissioner for Lands, Mr. Uche Nwosu, on behalf of the government and the lease agreement was N20m and annual ground rental fee of N1m and that the Quest Resources Consults Limited will maintain the facilities at its own cost. And the lease is for 35 years, but for the last five years, we have not been able to exercise our rights at all.

“On coming to resume work at the nine-storey hotel building and the sports gym, we learnt that the state government had instructed the men of the civil defence at the gate not to allow workers of the company into the property, which is a violation of the lease agreement.

“This is lawlessness and we cannot continue to condone such behaviour in a democratic system where there should be rule of law. We want to use this medium to call the Imo State government to obey the rule of law by upholding the rights of the owners of Heroes’ Square.”

Kanu added that in the lease agreement, the property was free for use.

“However, the government is supposed to pay the sum of N350,000 on every occasion. But since the agreement was signed, the state government owes the company N630m from making use of the Heroes Square and has not paid a dime to the company based on the lease agreement,” he added

He further stated that the company did not want to take issue with the state government but would enforce its rights as the owner of Heroes’ Square.

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