The Aba Book Club, on Tuesday, pleaded with Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu to stop Aba South Local Government authorities from converting the Aba zonal library permanent site into a motor park.
The call was contained in a letter to the governor dated March 28, and signed by the club’s Curator, Nnanna Daniel, and Secretary, Dr Ugo Emeodi, respectively, and made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The group said the conversion of the state government-owned site to a dumping ground for impounded vehicles and small-holder shops, would stop the library’s development and discourage a reading culture in Aba.
It further said the move by the Aba South local council was “harmful to Ikpeazu’s rebranding and selling of the Aba Brand”.
“The Made-in-Aba project is not limited to artisans, but also other creatives like, authors, poets, playwrights, essayists etc who are the think-tank of Aba society.
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“We believe your excellency has good intentions for the city of Aba and Abia State in general, hence our drawing your attention to this distasteful development.
“We also call on the general public to support the full development of Aba Divisional Library, through donations of books and other hardware, to encourage reading in the commercial city”, it said.
The group expressed sadness over the abandonment of Aba Divisional Library permanent site on Constitution Crescent, formerly European Quarters, resulting in its proposed unfortunate conversion.
The club reminded all stakeholders that libraries were necessary within a city to afford users, timely, accurate, pertinent, and reliable information that cannot be dispensed with.
It said that libraries increased the knowledge-base and academic consciousness of a society and enables residents become better through reading, even books they cannot afford.
The Club said that apart from the Abia Divisional Libraries’ headquarters at Umuahia, the Aba divisional library was next in importance in Abia, hence the need to secure and develop the permanent site.
It said that the Eastern regional government established the “Eastern Regional Library Board in 1955 which acquired the land and handed it down to Imo state and later Abia, following its creation.
Converting the library’s permanent site to other purposes, the club’s letter said, would amount to destroying the legacies of past governments and their good intentions for the people.
The group, therefore, urged Ikpeazu to stop the encroachment of Aba South local government authorities on the site and using it for anything other thing what it was meant for.