Consequently, when the British government, sent the police to investigate the matter, the Ohabiam people were said to have deserted their homes before the arrival of the resident's brutal police after they killed Etoni of Aba.

In the same year, the positive development of that century for the Ngwa people, was the return of Nsulu and Ntigha areas of Old Bende Divivsion to Aba Division. Also in the same year, the Anti-Locust Campaign in Aba District was flagged off to reduce the menace of the locust insects, on vegetation and general agricultural development.

The next year, 1932, the British colonial administration enacted the first environment sanitation laws to regulate the system of conservancy. This led to introduction of bucket latrine system that replaced ''OTIKPIRI'' (in the Ngwa tongue), which lasted for more than two generations, before being superceeded by better methods all over the world. And at that time, it was a mark of urbanization, for it was a step ahead of the pit latrine (Chief John Osuala 2000:43).

To facilitate further development, the Aba-Ohanku Road, was opened in 1933, to enable the villagers bring in palm produce from the hinterland. This was a strategic move then, the same strategic relevance the road has continued to have, which compelled Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, to have led it tarred early in his administration, and commissioned by President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria.

The next year, the Aba Native Court, was abolished in 1934, and the Ngwa clan areas, were divided into twelve village groups by the British Assistant Divisional Officer, Mr Allen. The remaining Ngwa groups of villages formerly in Bende Division finally were moved back to Aba Division.

Three years later in 1937, the Roman Catholic Mission School, Aba, was built to further boost the spread of education in Aba, and consolidate the Christian faith to the newly converted people and their children. The Orie Abala Tragedy took place in the same year.

In 1939, ten years after the 1929 Aba Women Riot, the government was not satisfied with the practice of Registration of Births and Deaths. SO a law making it compulsory for parents to register the births of their children as an aid later for issues like census, health management schemes, and general economic planning, was enforced in Aba Township.

Coincidentally, the future Traditional Ruler of Aba Township (Aba Ukwu Amano Autonomous Community), His Royal highness, Eze Williams Ugwuakporokaefu Ukaegbu, was born this year to his late father Chief Ukaegbu Ogbuji, who brought in the first set of Whitemen in the 1890s for trade and settlement in Aba.

The realignment of village groups to their traditional linguistic areas, continued on 1st April, 1940, with the transfer of Obete village from Opobo Division to Aba Division, and attached to Ndoki clan, and the first Ngwa man to get high judicial appointment, was  Mr. Eruba who was made District Clerk of Aba, something akin to being given the  contemporary appointment of the Administrative Judge i Aba Residents of Aba, felt that Mr. Eruba was so highly elevated to demand celebration, which they did. It may not mean anything viewed from the prism of today, but it meant a lot in those days.

The following year, 1941, saw the British Captain H. B. Shephard, being brought in as the Divisional Officer of  Aba, while one Mr. Oranye was made District Interpreter for Aba. In the 21st century, these classes of appointment, may not carry weight but in the early to the middle years of the 20th century, it was important to be  the instrument to understand the whiteman's English, and then convey his message to your people, and vice versa. Whatever interpretation, the interpreter gave, was the real directive of the British Colonial officials, and most villagers were not in a position to know otherwise.

In the same 1941, there was shortage of table salt in Aba Division, causing whole families for some weeks to go without salt in their dishes. This perhaps was a foretaste of what was going to happen later in the late 1960s, during thhe Nigerian-Biafran Civil War.

Same in 1941, it was extremely inconveniencing to eat dishes without salt. But while there was a shortage in the basic food seasoning, there was progress in the infrastructural development area of tarring the key-elephant track of Aba-Owerri Road. This was the first ever effort to transform the elephant track into a motorway. 

In 1943, Captain H. B. Shephered was replaced as the Divisional Officer of Aba by D.A.T. Shute. And it was in Mr. Shute's administration that the first clash between the Aba Traders and some soldiers took place when the soldiers attempted to loot their market stalls, because they were not paid in time at the peak of the Second World War.

The traders resisted stoutly, and the soldiers were overpowered, and later disciplined by their superior officers. This was the background to many future clashes between even the customs, police and soldiers with the Aba traders, which even climaxed to rioting young Ariaria traders, forcing the Abia State Military Administrator, Colonel Moses Fasanya, to walk knee-deep with his black polished military boots through dirty flood water in Faulks Road, fifty four years later.

Following the end of the Second World War in 1945, Mr. Oranye was replaced with Mr. T. U. Azuike, as the Senior Interpreter for Aba, while Mr. H. L. M. Butcher, replaced D. A. T. Shute as the Divisional Officer for Aba (DO). And in 17th March, 1948, construction of the Lever Brothers Soap factory commenced. The plant of Nigeria Breweries PLC, equally began in  the same year. The premises of the School of Nursing Aba, was completed this year, and the completion of tarring of Aba-Owerri Road, within a short distance of Aba-Owerri Divisional boundary, took place.

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